Cronyism in Penang appointments?

ARCHIVES 2013

By admin-t On Jul 15, 2013

(FMT) – “What has she contributed to the party or state before she was made a councillor?”

The Penang Malay Congress (PMC) has questioned the state government’s rationale in appointing “novices” as councillors and maintaining the detrimental “race quota’ system mooted by Barisan Nasional.

Alluding to last week’s appointment of councillors, PMC president Rahmad Isahak said the recent induction had generated a lot of suspicion among certain quarters that a degree of cronyism was applied during the selection process.

This creates doubts about whether the state is upholding its pledges of competency, accountability and transparency (CAT), he added.

For starters, Rahmad said he was informed that the newly inducted councillor from DAP, Nur Fitriah Abdul Halim, aged 26, had barely joined the party before she was made councillor.

“The congress has nothing against Nur Fitriah. She may be capable in her own right, but what we are questioning is the due process of selection on the part of DAP.

“What has she contributed to the party or state before she was made a councillor?” he asked.

Rahmad added that if indeed it was true that Nur Fitriah has been a DAP member for less than a year, and is yet to serve the state in any other capacity, then the Penang government could be making a mockery out of the selection process of councillors.

“This indirectly hampers Nur Fitriah as well, as she will need to learn her duties very fast and cope with the fresh demands from the ratepayers,” he said.

Secondly, Rahmad said in this age of competency, councillors should not be appointed just to fulfill the race quota.

“If the state wants to continue on the same road like Barisan Nasional (BN) in appeasing the race quota, then they should appoint people based on their experience, qualifications and seniority.

“We should not repeat BN’s mistakes of appointing cronies,” he said.