KUALA LUMPUR, June 6 — Finance Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz should not abuse his position as minister to contest in a constituency, DAP secretary-general Anthony Loke jas warned today.
In a statement, Loke said Tengku Zafrul’s approach of “adopting” Kuala Selangor is an abuse of authority, amid rumours that he is slated to contest the seat under Umno.
“Tengku Zafrul should not use his position as Finance Minister to give himself an advantage to contest in a constituency.
“Throughout my tenure as a Member of Parliament since 2008, I have never heard of any ministry using the ‘adopted district’ approach,” Loke said.
Loke who is also former transport minister added that a ministry needs to formulate policies and deliver services to the whole country and not just any one particular area.
“Furthermore, approval for a railway station is also not under his jurisdiction as Minister of Finance.
“Approval for the ‘railway scheme’ is under the responsibility of the Land Public Transport Agency which is an agency under the Ministry of Transport,” Loke said.
Yesterday, Tengku Zafrul had in a Bernama report announced the approval to construct a Northern Alignment East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) station in Puncak Alam at a Majlis Kenduri Rakyat Kuala Selangor.
He also mentioned his intention to make Kuala Selangor the adopted district of the Ministry of Finance, to realise the progress of the district as much as possible in the future.
He added that he views the Kuala Selangor district sentimentally.
Last month, an Umno division in Selangor had called on its members to boycott programmes involving finance minister Tengku Zafrul, amid talks that he is eyeing the Kuala Selangor parliamentary seat in the next general election.
In January, he was reported as saying that he did not have time to think whether he wanted to contest in the next election, following speculation linking him to the Lembah Pantai and Kuala Pilah parliamentary seats.
