Hadi urged to intervene in Kedah conflict

PAS top leadership is urged to take swift and proactive action to settle the dispute between Kedah MB and his state exco members.

ALOR SETAR: PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang has been urged intervene in the conflict between Kedah menteri besar, Azizan Abdul Razak and senior exco Phahrolrazi Mohd Zawawi.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a state exco member said the conflict is getting out of hand and the situation is worse than what is being reported in media.

“There is a total of 16 PAS state assemblymen in the state assembly and attempts to force Azizan to give up the menteri besar’s post have hit a snag as both Azizan and Phahrolrazi have the support of eight assemblymen each.

“The rest of the Pakatan Rakyat state assemblymen from PKR and DAP have chosen to remain neutral out of respect for their fellow Pakatan Rakyat leaders,” he said.

Phahrolrazi and two exco members, Dr Ismail Salleh and Dr Hamdan Mohamed Khalib have refused to be sworn in next Tuesday because they are unhappy with Azizan.

“It’s merely on the weaknesses of Azizan as an administrator. The MB claims he is healthy, but he dozes off during meetings. He also has vision problems,” said the exco man.

The exco member alleged that Azizan was also inefficient as an MB. When asked what he meant by inefficient, he said Azizan has made numerous blunders in his administration.

“He made plenty of technical blunders. I don’t have any personal grudges against him, he maybe a good politician but a lousy administrator.

“Another example is when we exco members have problems with the municipal council, like wanting to implement a new system, the Umno mentality kicks in and cooperation is nil.

“We brought this up to Azizan at the exco meetings. Instead of solving the problem, he kicked the ball back to us and told us to deal with the respective department heads ourselves.

“We are the lawmakers. We should decide what is good for the state and the people. We should not have to beg to the municipal council president to implement policies.

“We have a tough time explaining unpopular decisions by Azizan. Many times, Azizan overrides decisions taken collectively by the exco,” said the exco man.

Corrupt practices
He also revealed that Azizan had not conducted post-exco meetings for the past two years.

“Let’s say we had our exco meeting today. We pass 50 proposals, policies and actions that need to be implemented in the state.

“The very next day, the state secretary should chair the post exco meeting with all the department heads and relevant authorities to explain what needs to be done.

“These are the people who implement decisions taken by the exco and to have a machinery in place to implement policies and measures, but no such meetings had taken place.

“We have also reported corrupt practices against some state government officers but Azizan didn’t take any action,” said the exco man.

He said Abdul Hadi and the rest of the PAS top leadership should act swiftly and take proactive action in order to save the state from falling into Barisan Nasional hands.

“I can tell you Kedah is in danger of falling to BN if the competency and performance of the menteri besar is not settled fast.

The anonymous exco member also urged Abdul Hadi and the rest of the PAS central leadership to talk with the PKR and DAP reps to find out the truth about Azizan’ leadership.