Daggers out for Selangor MB

(The Star) – Trouble is brewing within the Selangor state administration with daggers being pointed at Mentri Besar Amirudin Shari.

According to several PKR elected representatives, Amirudin is facing a triple-pronged attack over three separate issues.

Apparently, certain elected representatives want Amirudin removed due to the many state-related social welfare programmes that have been halted.

“Pakatan Harapan won Selangor with a very comfortable majority because of these programmes in the last general election.

“Our constituents are feeling cheated now that these programmes are no longer available, ” said an assemblyman.

Selayang MP William Leong concurred, adding that the scrapping of the people-centric programmes was hurting all elected representatives in Selangor.

“This matter has been brought up to him (Amirudin) and what he should do is to call all Pakatan elected representatives in the state together to discuss the matter with us, ” said Leong, adding that this has yet to materialise.

Another matter threatening Amirudin with a no-confidence vote was his inability to see through the tabling of proposed amendments to a syariah enactment at the state legislative assembly sitting last week.

The proposed amendments revolved around the unilateral conversion of minors.

“Some elected representatives are angry with Amirudin because he was unable to see the tabling through and there are some who are angry with him for ‘agreeing’ to allow the proposed amendments to be tabled, ” said the elected representative.

Currently, the consent of both parents are needed in matters concerning the conversion of a minor child in Selangor but once the amendments are made, consent will be required from only one parent.

To make matters worse, some assemblymen from PKR as well as other Pakatan partner parties have also jumped on the bandwagon to seek a vote of no-confidence against Amirudin after talk surfaced that he (Amirudin) had suggested that Selangor Speaker Ng Suee Lim be replaced.

Ng, who is also DAP’s Sekinchan assemblyman, is said to have abruptly convened the state assembly sitting to another date which prevented the proposed amendment to the syariah enactment from being tabled last week.

Amirudin had also raised the ire of party members aligned to party president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim when he claimed to know the culprit behind the sex video implicating Economic Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Azmin Ali.

There was also talk that disgruntled PKR members had turned to Umno for help to unseat Amirudin.

When contacted, Selangor Opposition chief Rizam Ismail said Barisan had better things to do than poke their nose into PKR’s internal warfare.

“We have no time for their bickering. They should know better than to waste time fighting each other instead of serving the state and its people, ” said Rizam.

A meeting, which will be followed by dinner at a hotel in Shah Alam, has also been scheduled on Thursday (Aug 8) night for all state PKR MPs, assemblymen, party leaders as well as division chiefs.

Azmin, who was the Selangor mentri besar before moving up to the Federal Government, will be delivering a keynote address at the event.