A group of 19 Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ) councillors who walked out from a full-board meeting yesterday said they did so to protect the city council’s interests.
In a statement, they said it was because whatever decision the meeting makes about a development project in Lorong Sultan - which they had a disagreement about - it would be used as a reference should any issue arise later.
“Whatever decision the meeting makes (on this issue), it will be used as a reference should any issue arise in the future.
“Thus, the decision by 19 MBPJ councillors to walk out today was only to safeguard MBPJ interests, to protect it from making a mistake from a legal perspective, and to ensure the wellbeing of all Petaling Jaya folks,” the councillors said in the statement, which was issued on Tuesday.
It was reported that a full-board meeting on Tuesday had abruptly ended after 19 out of 24 councillors walked out over a disagreement surrounding procedures involved in the approval of a development project in Lorong Sultan.
According to a report by English daily The Star, a heated argument had taken place during the meeting led by Petaling Jaya mayor Mohamad Azhan Md Amir.
The 19 councillors had reportedly disagreed with Azhan’s statement that the councillors were not decision-makers in the One-Stop Centre (OSC) discussion and that they were only there to give input on social and political aspects.
Terence Tan, who was one of the councillors who walked out from the meeting, reportedly said the OSC had earlier rejected the project due to the proposed plot ratio being higher than the city’s permissible limit at the time of consideration.
Tan also said that he and many of the other councillors who walked out were not against the development but merely wanted MBPJ to follow procedures.
In their statement, the councillors said that they disagreed with the mayor’s action, which they said had disregarded the due legal process.
They said the PJ mayor had made a decision to approve the project when the majority at the OSC meeting disagreed with it.
“The position of the 19 MBPJ councillors is clear: any application for a development project in PJ must go through the proper and transparent procedures, and must respect the principles of the law.
“Our position is clear that the applicant must withdraw their case at the Appeal Board, submit a new application, and then it will be discussed again based on the latest guidelines, instead of being approved without going through the proper legal procedures.” - Mkini
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