PM’s open houses are just election events, says Sanusi

 

Sanusi Md Nor, who heads a PAS-led government in Kedah, said the federal government should stick to the tradition of an open house at Seri Perdana.

PETALING JAYA: Hari Raya open house events by the prime minister in six states due to hold elections have been described as merely election campaign events which should not proceed.

By holding these events, Putrajaya was going against its own stance of doing away with massive events to cut costs, said Kedah menteri besar Sanusi Md Nor.

He said federal leaders should stick to the long-standing tradition of a single open house event at the prime minister’s residence, Seri Perdana, or around Putrajaya.

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On Thursday, the Prime Minister’s Department said the open house at Seri Perdana would not be held this year, but open houses would be held in Kedah, Kelantan and Terengganu.

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However, government spokesman Fahmi Fadzil said today that the open houses would be held in Kedah (April 29), Penang (May 6), Negeri Sembilan (May 7), Kelantan (May 12), Terengganu (May 13), and Selangor (May 14).

The state assemblies of the six states are due to be dissolved or will expire in June and elections are expected to be held in July.

Sanusi questioned the involvement of several ministries in organising the open house events, as announced on Thursday. He said the ministries are not given specific budgets for such events.

“People will see how you are using government funds to organise election campaigning programmes for your parties. This is wrong,” he was quoted as saying to the reporters at his Raya open house event in Alor Setar.

Unhappy netizens

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Social media users also criticised Putrajaya for having these events in the six election states.

Commenting on a public invitation by Fahmi for these events, user Adli Hassan IV said: “So much for saving the country’s revenue.”

Another user, Arif Fazil questions how much government funds are being spent on organising these open house events. “Answer this (question) in the Parliament,” he said.

Muhd Aiman said that the government could better spend that money on organising Raya feasts for orphans, while user Wan Daud questioned how the government could organise that many open house events.

“I bet Fahmi Fadzil would be complaining on Twitter for up to four weeks if (former prime ministers) Najib (Razak) and Muhyiddin( Yassin) had done the same thing,” he added. - FMT