17 Sg Petani councillors walk out, want chief to quit

A group of Sungai Petani Municipal Councillors are planning to seek the Kedah menteri besar’s intervention to remove the council chairperson over a total loss of confidence in her leadership.

The 17 councillors, who staged a walk-out yesterday during the council’s monthly financial meeting, did so to protest against the leadership of chairperson Rozaina Radzi ( left ).

It is learnt that the group is extremely upset with Rozaina over the demolition of 16 hawker stalls near Kelab Cinta Sayang in Sungai Petani last Thursday.

One of the councillors, Simon Ooi, said the group has decided not to attend any council meeting until Rozaina and the council secretary were removed.

“Although the demolition incident led to us staging a walk-out, we had actually noticed Rozaina’s failure to cooperate with us to bring the much-needed development to Sungai Petani a long time ago,” said Ooi.

“Whenever we proposed several development projects and plans like building bus stations and markets for the people, there was no follow-up, response or briefing from her at all,” he added.

Ooi ( right ), who is Sungai Petani MP Johari Abdul’s political secretary, said the group had consulted MB Azizan Abdul Razak, while PKR-appointed councillors have informed their state chief about their bold decision.

The affected hawkers had complained that they were not told of the council’s action beforehand.

They also lamented that the stalls were pulled down even while their customers were eating at the premises, without allowing the hawkers to negotiate.

Many are disappointed that their source of income have been affected, urging the council to act in a more ‘humane’ manner.

The hawkers claimed that they were only informed that the order (to demolish the stalls) came from Azizan, who is also state PAS commissioner.

Kedah Umno deputy liaison committee chairperson Mukhriz Mahathir has jumped on the bandwagon  to condemn the demolition as unfair to the operators.

He added that the people, who had been “promised a lot by the state government”, were now disappointed.

“You cannot promise everything, but whatever you promise you should keep,” he was quoted as saying by Bernama after presenting computers to SJK (T) Mahajothi in Sungai Petani.

Finding an alternative hawker centre

Meanwhile, Ooi said the councillors were in the midst of finding an alternative hawker centre where those affected by the demolition could be relocated.

He added that during the council meeting yesterday morning, the group had requested Rozaina to clarify the rationale behind the demolition exercise.

“As we were dissatisfied with her explanation, our whip Ishak Man told her frankly that we had lost confidence in her... then we decided to all walk out,” he said.

“She appeared rather startled for a while and then continued ‘whoever wants to remain, let us proceed with the meeting’,” he added.

On the eviction of hawkers, Ooi said the councillors had agreed to demolish illegal stalls which started operating after 2011.

However, the existing ones needed to be relocated to a new site before action is taken.

He said other than relocating the affected ones, it was better to allow the hawkers to dismantle the stalls themselves.

“Please do not force it on them and without the knowledge of the councillors,” he stressed.