We are no longer a ‘Pakatan government’, Penang declares amid Selangor deadlock

(Malay Mail Online) – The crisis in Pakatan Rakyat (PR) continued today as the Penang government, taking a completely opposite position from its Selangor counterparts, announced that it no longer considers itself a “PR government”.

Instead, Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said the state leadership, with the consensus of all 30 DAP, PKR and PAS assemblymen, has decided that its administration should be referred to as just the “Penang state government”.

In a statement here, Lim said a meeting with all state executive councillors yesterday unanimously agreed to three resolutions – to oppose PAS’s severing of ties with the DAP during its muktamar last month; to accept that the muktamar decision effectively ended PR’s existence; and to continue governing Penang in accordance with the now-defunct pact’s 2009 Common Policy Framework.

“Therefore, the exco (state executive council) also decided that it is now referred to as the Penang state government, and is no longer the Penang PR state government,” the DAP secretary-general said in a statement here.

Lim went on to add that the Penang government will continue to function normally, saying it will focus its commitments on improving the public service in accordance with the principles of Competency, Accountability and Transparency or CAT.

On June 18, shortly after declaring PR dead following PAS’s decision to cut ties with the DAP, Lim announced that Penang’s sole PAS assemblyman Datuk Mohd Salleh Man will remain as part of the state administration.

“The Penang PR state government is no more but he is now part of the Penang state government,” he told a press conference at his office then.

He said the decision by the state to reject PAS’s decision to sever ties with DAP and accept Salleh as part of the state administration was unanimously agreed by the 30 PR state assemblyman in a meeting the day before.

The state government, which was known as a PR-controlled state when it won the state back in 2008 and retained it in 2013, is now led by DAP and PKR.

PR is not an official entity, however, as it was never registered as such.

Earlier today, Malay Mail Online reported that Selangor Mentri Besar Azmin Ali’s refusal so far to join Penang in declaring PR’s death and set terms for PAS to remain in his administration were why state PKR and DAP leaders could not reach a consensus on the state’s future during their recent meeting.

Malay Mail Online understands that Selangor DAP wants the mentri besar to concur with their party’s declaration of PR’s end and to pressure the national PAS leadership to sign a formal agreement compelling its state chapter to support the state government and, by extension, the PR common policy framework.

Sources familiar with the matter said that Azmin did not agree to this, and that he did not want to disrupt his working relationship with the Islamist party as the first-term MB still needs PAS’s support in order to continue running the state government.