ALOR SETAR: Kedah may hold back its claim for higher Penang "lease" payments until Perikatan Nasional takes over the federal government if Putrajaya continues to reject the demand.
Kedah Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor (pic) said the state government was considering whether to submit all documents supporting its claim to the federal government now or wait until there was a change of government.
Kedah's Darul Aman Information Secretariat reported on Monday (Aug 10) that Sanusi said this when answering a supplementary question from Azhar Ibrahim (PAS-Ayer Hitam) at the Kedah state assembly sitting.
"If the federal government remains stubborn and refuses to pay or consider Kedah's application, we will change the federal government.
"We are considering whether all these documents should be submitted now for discussion or later, after we become the federal government," he said.
Azhar had asked what the state government would do if Putrajaya continued to refuse to consider Kedah's claim.
Sanusi said the issue was not new as the state government had been pursuing a review of Penang's lease payments for the past six years without receiving a positive response from Putrajaya.
"If they had ears to listen and the sense to think, this would have been accepted as something that needed to be discussed.
"But in the responses over the past six years, there has been no positive response from the federal government," he said.
Sanusi said Kedah wanted the claim to be decided according to the law, regardless of the parties involved.
He said the rule of law should come first and apply equally to everyone.
"If that still cannot happen, we change them first and then present the case," he said.
Responding to Bau Wong Bau Ek (PKR-Sidam), who asked whether the claim was pursued during the 33 months when Perikatan Nasional was in the federal government, Sanusi said he raised the matter with the prime minister at the time.
However, he said the supporting documents were not ready then and the claim could not be formally submitted.
"I mentioned it to the prime minister (Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin) at the time. The documents were not complete like they are now, so we did not submit them.
"Once they were completed, we could. But we will see who the prime minister is," he said.
Earlier, Sanusi told the assembly that Kedah completed a comprehensive study to support its demand for higher Penang lease payments.
The state government appointed a research team comprising historians and legal experts to examine historical documents, agreements, payment records and the legal and constitutional position of the claim.
The study was completed and its final report was presented to state executive councillors, assemblymen and MPs on April 15 last year.
