KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 2 — Kelantan Parti Amanah Negara (Amanah) has rejected the appointment of PKR deputy president Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali as the Kelantan state action council chairman (MTNg), a news report said.
Kelantan Amanah vice-chairman Che Ibrahim Mohamed had told Berita Harian that Azmin’s appointment by Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad violates the agreement reached at the Pakatan Harapan (PH) presidential council before the 14th General Election.
Che Ibrahim said PH Kelantan chief Datuk Husam Musa was promised the position and that Amanah will be left to handle Terengganu and Melaka as well.
“Actually, we have not received any official information on the appointment and the Amanah political bureau convened yesterday unanimously decided to ask the party’s representative, who is in the PH presidential council, to seek clarification as they happened to meet this evening (yesterday).
“In response to the reply, we look at the understanding that Kelantan and Terengganu are Amanah’s ‘states’. Therefore, we recommend the MTNg Chairman’s post be appointed from among Amanah’s ministers.
“If we do not agree, we can accept what Barisan Nasional (BN) did during the previous Dr Mahathir era when the prime minister himself took the position,” he said.
Che Ibrahim added that although the policy had changed, the MTNg chairman must be appointed from Cabinet ministers, which Dr Mahathir could still elect from the five existing Amanah ministers for the post.
Amanah currently has five ministers — Defence Minister Mohamad Sabu, Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Minister Datuk Salahuddin Ayub, Health Minister Datuk Seri Dzulkefly Ahmad, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Mujahid Yusof and Federal Territories Minister Khalid Samad.
Che Ibrahim also reiterated the position should be left to Amanah as was practised before.
“For example, Perak, which became the state of Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia, was given the post of Mentri Besar although their seat was only one in the state. Similarly, the post of chief minister of Melaka was given to Amanah.
“So we hope this spirit will also take place in Kelantan and Terengganu. We will wait for feedback in the PH presidential council for now as we have yet to receive official information on the appointment,” he said.
Azmin’s appointment was announced by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) on January 31, to take effect retrospectively from January 1 onwards. Azmin is also the economic affairs minister, Gombak MP as well as Bukit Antarabangsa assemblyman.
MTNg were established in each state nationwide as the main body responsible to ensure the decisions made by the National Action Council are executed at the state-level.
“Therefore to ensure all developments projects planned for Kelantan goes smoothly, the federal government hopes that the state government would provide their full cooperation,” the PMO’s Implementation Coordination Unit said today.
The PMO, in the announcement, said Putrajaya hoped for the full cooperation from the Kelantan government to ensure all development projects in the state were implemented smoothly.
