In cutting off Khalid, Pakatan shows its BN colours
Hazlan Zakaria, The Ant Daily
While vindictive politics may or may not be involved, Selangor government’s freezing of the Skim Mesra Usia Emas (SMUE) accounts for Bandar Tun Razak parliamentary district and Port Klang state constituency held by former PKR representative Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim still smacks of BN-like culture.
No one was more vocal than Pakatan representatives in BN-held states and Opposition held parliamentary constituencies when BN coordinators were appointed to handle federal and state allocations to their areas.
The money, they cried, was public monies due to the people of the constituencies and should be channelled through the elected representatives regardless of party.
The disbursal of public funds allocated to constituencies is a right for all elected representatives in a democracy and not a partisan matter insisted the opposition. I believe some have gone to court to fight for it, not to mention it becoming a popular Pakatan campaign rhetoric.
Indeed Pakatan often accuse the BN of misusing government funding and government programmes to make the ruling party look good.
Pakatan’s long shouted war cry has always been to extol that there is and should be separation between the party and the government, an affliction they loudly proclaim that BN suffers from.
It must be reiterated that the SMUE is also a state government programme using public funds and not a PKR or Pakatan programme using party funds.
As such the revelations in a Malaysiakini report that former aide to Khalid, Azman Abidin defending the closing of the SMUE accounts for both constituencies as Khalid is now independent and no longer a PKR or Pakatan representative stinks of partisanship and hypocrisy.
Azman who is Bandar Tun Razak PKR division chief was refuting previous allegations by another ex-Khalid aide Faekah Husin who accused the move as vindictive politics being practiced by current MB Azmin Ali who is known to be at odds with Khalid.
SMUE, a programme started by the state government to disburse aid to senior citizens born in Selangor is paid for by public funds and as such cannot be linked to partisan affiliations if you go by Pakatan’s own standards in their criticism of the BN federal and state governments.
Of course Pakatan has also been accused of doing the same with allocations in the states they themselves controlled, the SMUE case being a clear evidence of one.
It is important to note that as depicted in claims of abuse of public funds by the BN for campaigning, similarly using public funds for state programmes and channeling it only through party representatives can only be seen as an attempt to use public money to campaign for the party.
Something that it seems Pakatan too is doing in their own states.
Whatever Azman may say, this is a Selangor government initiative and not a PKR or Pakatan programme.
As such, for the state government to use party affiliations to shut down the spout for Khalid to look good in the eyes of senior citizens in his area only means that the party wants their own representatives to hand out the vote-bait and become the apple in the constituent’s eyes.
It is hypocrisy in the face of their cries condemning the BN for doing the same. Que va Pakatan? Out the spout and down the slippery slope goes thee?
