Saturday May 24, 2008
Stop criticising and get down to work, says Khir
SHAH ALAM: Former Selangor Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Dr Mohamad Khir Toyo has called on the Pakatan Rakyat-led state government to stop criticising the earlier government over trivial issues and start working on implementing improvements.
Dr Khir said the state government should stop thinking like it was the opposition and just criticise.
It needed to move forward by formulating new policies that would help in the development of the state.
“There are many issues which need attention like buffering the effects of the rising prices of goods, removing the involvement of middlemen at farmers markets and creating more professionals, as we are having to import even technicians now,” he told reporters at the lobby of the state assembly hall here.
Referring to the issue involving the Wives of Selangor Assemblymen and MPs Welfare and Charity Organisation (Balkis), he said the state government should set up its own charity organisation.
“We will see how much better it is then,” he said when asked to comment on Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim’s request for the Balkis matter to be referred to a Special Committee on Competency, Accountability and Transparency set up under the assembly.
In the case of the illegal clearing and encroachment into a forest reserve in Tanjung Karang, he said the state government had only been making comments and had not taken any action to bring the culprits to book.
He said the Pakatan Rakyat assemblymen had perhaps served as the opposition for too long and did not realise their new roles in the state government now.
Dr Khir said he was also worried about the state government’s actions in stopping a number of projects as this may have an adverse effect on the economic growth of the state.
“They have claimed a lot of misuse (by the earlier administration). They should take action against those involved because that is how a state government should act,” he said.
Speaking to reporters later, Khalid said the issues being raised by the Pakatan government were anything but trivial.
“A RM35bil state investment that only saw RM1bil in returns is a high-risk project and RM29mil spent in two months by assemblymen is a big issue that people should know about,” he said.
He said the Balkis issue, too, was a major one since it included the spending of hundreds of thousands of ringgit of its funds on clothes for its leaders because the money came from state subsidiaries and not the pockets of Barisan Nasional leaders, adding that these were major weaknesses in the earlier administration.
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