Enough with politicking, say Perlis folk

BN told to get on with the business of governing the state.

Bernama pic

KANGAR: Perlis folk have had enough with the politicking in the state, if a random survey by FMT is an indication.

They appear to hold the view that all politicians should respect the Perlis ruler’s appointment of Azlan Man as the menteri besar and that the state government should get on with the business of governing.

Mokhtar Shafie

“Enough of all this infighting,” said retired civil servant Mokhtar Shafie. “They are all from BN. Why do they need to fight? In any case, the Tuanku has already consented to Azlan being the MB. And he is from the BN fold.”

In the recent general election, BN won 10 of the 15 state seats in Perlis. Azlan was sworn in as the MB last Thursday, but in the absence of nine BN assemblymen, who had flown to Kuala Lumpur the night before. The boycott incurred the wrath of the Raja of Perlis, who noted that invitations had been sent out several days earlier.

Subsequently, at a press conference in Kuala Lumpur, Perlis Umno chairman Shahidan Kassim said Azlan would be sacked from the party. He also reportedly asked the ruler not to interfere in the state’s administration.

Mokhtar, who was a civil servant for 38 years, said the behaviour of the nine assemblymen was unacceptable.

“In my opinion,” he said, “they should apologise to the Tuanku. He is the Raja here. They should respect him. He is an old man. And as the head of state, it is within his powers to appoint the MB.”

Referring to suggestions for fresh polls in the state, he said it would spell the end of BN in Perlis.

“Perlis BN will lose for sure,” he said. “I’m confident of that.”

Mohd Farizal Ismail

Mohd Farizal Ismail, a Perlis native who works as a teacher in Perak, had similar views. He said the MB issue was settled when two of Umno’s top leaders, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and Hishammuddin Hussein, had an audience with the ruler.

He accused Shahidan of practising nepotism in naming his brother, Tambun Tulang assemblyman Ismail Kassim, as a candidate for MB.

He said it shouldn’t have taken two weeks for the Perlis government to be formed. “It left the rakyat in the lurch.”

Amzar Noor, who hails from Arau, where Shahidan is MP, claimed that the people of Perlis would have completely rejected BN if they had been told before the election that the MB candidate would be Shahidan’s brother.

Amzar, who works as a photographer in Kuala Lumpur, alleged that there was no economic development in Perlis during Shahidan’s tenure as Menteri Besar from 1995 to early 2008.

“And when other MBs took over, Shahidan used his position as the state Umno and BN chairman to interfere in state matters,” he added. “I view his interference as attempts to sabotage his successors’ efforts to develop the state.

“As a result, Perlis is not developed and we, the youths of Perlis, have to go out of the state to work simply because there are no job opportunities here.”

Amzar agreed with Mokhtar that BN would lose if fresh polls were held in the state.

Shahrin Othman

Graphic designer Shahrin Othman said there had been rumours even before GE14 that Shahidan would name his younger brother as the MB candidate. “Still, the move by Shahidan and the BN Nine to rebel against the Raja was quite shocking,” he said. “It was something new, an act of defiance.

He claimed that many among even the old folk who used to support Shahidan had turned against him after the recent act of alleged rebellion.

Writer Arafat Hambali said he viewed the current situation in Perlis as nothing more than a power struggle between “two big powers in a very small state, which gets its income from the federal government”.

He said he didn’t foresee the crisis being prolonged, noting that Hamizan Hassan, one of the BN Nine, attended a briefing that Azlan chaired yesterday. -FMT