Consultations with Pakatan state governments in drawing up the Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) were kept at a minimum level despite their being large stakeholders in many of the projects.

In particular, the Selangor government had little chance to provide feedback on the national key economic area (NKEA) Greater Kuala Lumpur, even though many of the projects are sited within the state's boundaries.

"While there has been some consultations we feel that there could have been more detailed, in-depth, thorough and regular engagements with the Selangor state government," said state research officer Tricia Yeoh.

According to her, the Menteri Besar's office was briefed in July, but details were missing.

"There was a lot more presented yesterday. It would have been good if we saw everything beforehand because a lot (of the projects under Greater Kuala Lumpur) are in Selangor," she said.

cpps bar council roundtable 030407 tricia yeoh Yeoh ( right ) added that while representatives of the Selangor Town and Country Planning Department did attend the Greater Kuala Lumpur laboratory, that was not enough as the state has a bigger stake.

Among areas of concern are the mass rapid transport plan, centralisation of solid waste management and the revitalisation of the Klang River, which straddle both the federal capital and the state.

The portions marked under the ETP are in Kuala Lumpur, which is upstream and would affect the river flow towards downstream areas in Selangor.

The Selangor government had in July announced that it will soon sign an agreement for a rehablitation project expected to attract RM50 billion worth of investments.

Selangor won't stonewall ETP

Commenting on this, Selangor Menteri Besar Khalid Ibrahim said that he will write to Perfomance Management and Delivery Unit (Pemandu) chief Idris Jala requesting a meeting soon.

"We feel that it is reasonable that our plan to turn the Klang River into a ‘river of life' be incorporated in the NKEA," he told a press conference after the state exco meeting yesterday.

NONE The meeting, he added, would also take into account other aspects of Greater Kuala Lumpur which involves areas in Selangor like Petaling Jaya, Subang Jaya, Ampang Jaya and Shah Alam.

The state, however, has no plans to stonewall the projects, as Khalid said that the meeting will aimed at finding ways to cooperate with the federal government in the implementation of ETP.

While the Selangor government had some inkling of how the programme would affect them prior to the launch, the Penang government was kept in the dark.

This despite Penang being the hub for electric and electronics products, also one of the twelve national key economic areas.

"As far as I know (Pemandu) did invite some electrics and electronics industry members from Penang, but not the government," said Bukit Bendera parliamentarian Liew Chin Tong.

Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng's political secretary Ng Wei Aik confirmed this when contacted.

‘Pemandu politically naive'

Responding to the complaints, Pemandu's programme and data management director Ahmad Suhaili Idrus said the output launched were a result of laboratory input from various parties.

"However, these were preliminary consultations and on a needs basis (when necessary). Further engagements will be held by the individual ETP sector leads," he said.

NONE But, according to UCSI University political analyst Ong Kian Ming ( left ) Pemandu was "politically naive" to think that can get away without inviting the state governments to the laboratories.

"Pemandu did a breakout and briefing session for each (cabinet) minister, why couldn't they do that for Penang and Selangor? Their contribution to gross national income is very big.

"Greater KL involves land and it involves Selangor and its many districts, and you can not expect the MB to just accept it the way it is," he said.

The apparent lack of sensitivity on the complex state-federal relationship is likely due to reliance on independent consultants like McKinsey, which assisted in the Greater KL laboratory, he said.