MUAR: Caretaker Mentri Besar Datuk Onn Hafiz Ghazi has rubbished allegations that Johor’s development is not balanced and forces people to migrate to other places.
He said that they have launched the Johor Economic Transformation Plan (JETP), which touches on the holistic aspects of development within all 10 districts in Johor.
“For Muar, we have the Maharani Energy Gateway, which was personally launched by His Majesty Sultan Ibrahim, King of Malaysia.
“The state government fully supports this project because of its spillover effect, especially for businesses and job opportunities,” he said after visiting the Barisan Election election machinery in the area.
He added that with the JEPT, each district would have its own niche focus that needed to be developed.
“I am sure the local Johorean will be able to see and feel the economic development taking place, especially via the welfare programmes such as Bantuan Kasih Johor (BKJ),” he said.
He said the allegations made by the opposition were untrue.
Meanwhile, on Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s recent remark on Federal Land Development (Felda) schemes and utilising government assets during the campaigning period, Onn Hafiz said that he wanted to move on from the recent incidents and focus on campaigning properly.
Onn Hafiz said that when he was prevented from entering a Felda scheme to give out grants to settlers, it was before the campaign period had started.
“During this campaign period, there was no issue. Anyway, I got a letter from the Felda management that the programme had been postponed due to technical reasons,” he added.
On Tuesday, Anwar in Parliament denied ordering the cancellation of the 2026 Johor Felda Settlers’ Day celebration in Kluang earlier this month.
"Who cancelled the event? Cancelled where? I did not give any such instructions," said Anwar, in reply to a supplementary question from Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin (PN-Larut) during the Prime Minister's Question Time on Tuesday (June 30).
Hamzah wanted to know why the federal government decided to cancel this year's Johor Felda Settlers' Day celebration.
Anwar said the only directive issued was that no event should use federal government machinery during an election campaign period.
Onn Hafiz had earlier claimed that he was prevented from entering a Felda settlement to present land titles to settlers during the 2026 Johor Felda Settlers Day celebration.
As a result, the event, which had originally been scheduled to take place at Felda Ulu Belitong, Kluang, on June 20 and 21, was moved to Dewan Dato Onn in Taman Sri Lambak in Kluang.
