Johor Pakatan reps ask to sit in district development committee

JOHOR BARU: Johor Pakatan Harapan is requesting the state government use its discretion and allow Pakatan elected representatives to sit in the district development action committee.

State PKR deputy chairman Jimmy Puah Wee Tse said this was to ease coordination since Barisan Nasional and Pakatan were now allies at the federal level.

“We will write an official letter and I hope the state government, especially Mentri Besar Datuk Onn Hafiz Ghazi, will give due consideration to allowing Pakatan assemblymen and lawmakers to sit in the committee,” he told Bernama after a meet-and-greet session in the Tebrau parliamentary constituency here yesterday.

On Nov 28 last year, the Johor state legislative assembly reportedly rejected a proposal to discuss the involvement of Opposition assemblymen in the committee.

The then mentri besar Datuk Seri Hasni Mohammad reportedly said the state government had sought an explanation from the Federal Government on the matter and according to the Implementation Coordination Unit (ICU) of the Prime Minister’s Department, the term “assemblymen” in the committee referred to those from the government bloc.

However, Hasni was quoted as saying that as a strategic partner, the state government was pleased to invite all Pakatan assemblymen as observers in the committee meeting, which meant that they would be invited to attend every meeting.

Meanwhile in a statement, Onn Hafiz urged all parties to refrain from issuing statements that could disrupt the administration of the state government.

He said Johor remained stable under the auspices of Johor Ruler Sultan Ibrahim Ibni Almarhum Sultan Iskandar, urging parties not to issue any statement that could interfere with state administration.