Old faces, ex-PKR reps among new Kedah exco

Kedah Menteri Besar Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor with his 10 state executive councillors at Wisma Darul Aman, Alor Setar, today.

ALOR SETAR: Kedah Menteri Besar Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor today announced his 10-member state executive council which sees a nearly even distribution between PAS and PPBM.

Of the 10, four are from PAS and three are from PPBM. Two are independents and the last is from Umno.

Sanusi himself will chair the committees for economic planning, town planning, land matters, earth and natural resources, finance, the Kedah Economic Council and state government-linked companies committee.

Newly-declared independent Robert Ling, who is the assemblyman for Sidam, will head the housing, environment, unity, Chinese and Siamese community portfolio.

Meanwhile, fellow independent Azman Nasrudin, who is the Lunas assemblyman, will head the agriculture and food industries, farming and commodities industry, transport and Indian affairs portfolio.

Azman was also an exco member under former menteri besar Mukhriz Mahathir, holding the portfolio for primary industries, agriculture and transport.

Other former exco members reinstated under Sanusi are PPBM’s Halimaton Shaadiah Saad and Firdaus Ahmad.

Halimaton will continue holding the portfolio for women, family, community development and welfare.

Firdaus meanwhile has been appointed as committee chairman for youth and sports; tourism, arts and culture; and entrepreneur development and cooperatives.

Former exco members from the earlier 2013 term were also reappointed: Ku Rahman Ku Ismail, who switched from Umno to PPBM in 2018, and Suraya Yaacob who remained in Umno.

Rahman will head the science, tech and innovation, industries and investment, and higher education committees while Suraya will hold the works, energy, and water resources portfolio.

The key portfolio of local government and health will be held by PAS’ Mohd Hayati Othman, who will also have the 11 local governments in the state under his care.

PAS’ Siti Ashah Ghazali will hold the rural development, human development and poverty eradication portfolio while Najmi Ahmad will hold the religious affairs, education and human resources portfolio.

Wan Romani Wan Salim, also of PAS, will hold the information, communication and multimedia and consumer affairs and trade portfolio.

There are 23 Perikatan Nasional (PN) members in the 36-member assembly. Of these, 15 are from PAS, four are PPBM members aligned with PN and the remaining four are split evenly between Umno and independents. - FMT

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