Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Trouble in Selangor PKR

The Star : Wednesday June 25, 2008

PETALING JAYA: Trouble is brewing in Selangor PKR with several division heads voicing unhappiness with the state government, claiming “party warriors” were being sidelined by Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim's administration.

Sabak Bernam PKR division head Dr Badrul Amin said 17 of the 22 PKR division heads had submitted a letter to PKR de-facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim voicing their dissatisfaction with Khalid.

“We are angry that many of our pejuang (party warriors), especially division heads, were not appointed into the government, including as local councillors.

“The anger has been fuelled further as our state secretary, Mohd Yahya Mat Sahri, was suspended for a yet to be proven allegation,” he said when met yesterday by reporters at PKR’s old headquarters here.

Yesterday, Mohd Yahya quit as Khalid's aide and also as Selangor PKR secretary. He was suspended by Khalid on Monday for allegedly improperly facilitating the approval of cleaning and garbage collection contracts in Petaling Jaya.

A group of PKR members from Selangor gathered at the old office on hearing word that Anwar who had just returned from Mecca, would be meeting Mohd Yahya there.

Sources said Mohd Yahya met Anwar at an undisclosed location later in the evening.
Dr Badrul said they had submitted a list of proposed names for local councillors but none were chosen.

“We are not happy as the people we named were not only qualified but were with the party during reformasi (reformation) time and even braved teargas and beatings for the party,” he said.

Dr Badrul also voiced dissatisfaction over the way action was taken against Mohd Yahya.

“Things could have been done in a more professional manner. He was suspended without even being called to give an explanation.”

Meanwhile, former Mentri Besar Datuk Sri Dr Mohamad Khir Toyo said the fact that Khalid suspended his own senior aide over an unproven allegation showed the Mentri Besar had failed to resolve matters within his party.

“It seems like Khalid has washed his hands of the issue by simply suspending Mohd Yahya although the approval letter for the cleaning and garbage collection contract came from the Mentri Besar’s office,” he added.

Dr Khir also said police should investigate the allegation by former PKR stalwart Mohamad Ezam Mohd Nor that the Mentri Besar’s office had collected funds from businesses for the 100-days-in-office celebrations and deposited the cash into the PKR account instead of the state coffers as this was tantamount to criminal breach of trust.

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