Kedah Pakatan in a tight spot
By Athi Shankar, Free Malaysia Today
ALOR SETAR: The Kedah Pakatan Rakyat’s rally this Friday is to show the people that the state government was strong, united and stable.
Johari Abdul, the PKR MP for Sungai Petani, said the rally’s main aim was to quash rumours and speculation that Kedah Pakatan government is on the verge of collapse.
All 20 Pakatan assemblymen and grassroots leaders are expected to attend the rally to be held at the state PAS headquarters in Kota Sarang Semut.
“We want to show the people of Kedah and all Malaysians that the Pakatan government is here to stay.
“We will not fall prey to Umno and Barisan Nasional’s propaganda,” Johari, who is also the Kedah PKR election director, told FMT today.
But a Pakatan MP, who did not want to be identified, said that all was not well in the state administration.
The MP said Pakatan’s non-PAS assemblymen and MPs from Kedah have issues with PAS leaders due to the PAS-led state government’s overwhelming dominance.
He said non-PAS assemblymen and MPs felt Menteri Besar Azizan Abdul Razak was running the state like it was a PAS fiefdom, making a mockery of the Pakatan “power-sharing” concept.
He also claimed that PAS’ senior leaders in Kedah showed scant respect to local leaders from PKR and DAP.
“PAS leaders, including Azizan, think that only their party is the ruling party. They ignore and neglect PKR and DAP’s participation.
“PAS leaders frequently sideline and isolate their counterparts from other Pakatan parties in decision-making process.
“This is against the Common Policy Framework (CPF) espoused by Pakatan,” said the MP.
However, inspite of this, he believed that none of the three PKR and the single DAP assemblymen would defect from Pakatan and become independent representatives.
The PKR representatives are Tan Joon Long @ Tan Chow Kang (Sidam), S Manikumar (Bukit Selambau) and Lim Soo Nee (Kulim), all executive councillors in Azizan’s government.
The DAP’s sole legislator is Kota Darul Aman’s Lee Guang Aik.
