Let’s play government

With Azmin in charge of nearly everything that matters, the other nine Excos can just loaf about.

COMMENT

One thing that I have never understood is what do these executive committees (Excos) do?

I have a friend who used to sit in the tourism committee in Terengganu that was headed, of course, by the Exco Member for Tourism and Culture. He said all they did was talk and have tea and cakes.

It was a total waste of time, my friend said. Nothing much was achieved; so he eventually did not bother attending any of the meetings.

The new Selangor Exco looks pretty impressive. But what is more important is what functions do all these committees perform?

For example, what will Daroyah Alwi do with her Health, Welfare, Women and Families Affairs Committee? Yes, Families Affairs, not Family Affairs. Can we get some details? Will Selangor build more hospitals? Will they stand on street corners handing out free condoms and syringes so that the incidence of AIDS can be reduced?

And what is she going to do regarding families affairs? Most problems are faced by Muslim wives due to the injustice perpetuated by the male chauvinist syariah courts. Is she going to appoint more women syariah judges?

It is time that the voters are told how their government functions because while on paper all these state committees look impressive, in reality it is a lot of hogwash. I mean they could not even solve a simple matter like the seizure of Bibles and other Islam-related problems.

V Ganabathirau of DAP has the worst committee of all—Poverty, Compassionate Government and Plantation Workers. What is this committee supposed to do, especially when it comes to compassionate government? And is this all the Indians are good for? Looking after poverty and plantation workers? And why an Indian to take care of plantation workers, who are mostly foreigners?

What we need are not look-good-feel-good committees. What we need are down-to-earth committees that actually perform some functions. But most of these committees appear to be mere window dressing.

Azmin Ali, however, not only has the cake but the icing on the cake as well. With finance, land and natural resources under his control, Azmin can practically run the state single-handedly, leaving the other nine Exco members free to play government.

This is nothing short of a coup for PKR, or is it a coup for Azmin? The functions that really matter are all in his hands.