Former Selangor Menteri Besar Abdul Khalid Ibrahim has reiterated calls for his successor Azmin Ali to step down unless he can push through the state’s water restructuring efforts.
He said since Azmin had taken over the state administration, he appears to be delaying the government takeover of the four water concessionaires in the state and had failed to even take concrete steps on the issue.
“(His) sincerity in putting the rakyat first would show if he steps down now so that the assembly can find a replacement who is truly qualified, capable and talented to shoulder this heavy responsibility,” he said in a statement today.
The independent assemblyperson said that as a result of Azmin’s inaction, government officers who had been working hard to ensure the success of the restructuring process, appear lost without clear direction or guidelines from the menteri besar.
Khalid ( photo ) accused Azmin of issuing ‘confusing statements, wishy-washy rhetoric, and baseless accusations’ against stakeholders, especially the federal government, and wondered if his successor is truly incompetent or has other plans.
The Perlabuhan Klang independent assemblyperson stressed that there should be no compromise in finalising Selangor’s water industry restructuring, or Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya would be facing critical water shortages.
This is because if the Langat 2 Water Treatment Plant and its distribution system could not be completed by 2017, he is convinced that the government would not hesitate to invoke the Water Services Industry Act 2006 if the situation is still at a dead-end, particularly Section 114 of the law.
Section 114 allows the National Water Services Commission (Span) to take control of water concessionaires – in effect a federal takeover of the state’s resources.
Khalid was Selangor’s menteri besar from 2008 to 2014, and one of his final and most controversial acts was to sign a memorandum of understanding with the federal government to go ahead with Selangor’s water restructuring process.
This was supposedly done without sanction from his party or the knowledge of the state’s exco members.
Khalid was eventually sacked by the party last year, but has been increasingly vocal against his successor in recent weeks following the breakup of the Pakatan Rakyat coalition.
