Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Penang UMNO Youth Defies PM on CM's post

Following from the issue I posted in Penang CM's post - bleating lamb and strutting roosters, four more UMNO division Youth wings in Penang passed resolutions insisting on UMNO getting a turn at the Penang Chief Minister’s job.

These have been in utter defiance of PM AAB who had already shot (pun not intended) down the proposal for rotation of the CM’s post among the BN component parties.

Well, the PM had shown his ‘stuff’ against Dr Mahathir by also shooting down (sorry lah, this 'shooting' word is so useful) the Grand Ole Man’s insistence on Malaysia building the bridge to Singapore. PM AAB had said firm prime-ministerial words to the effect: “I’m the PM, I’ve decided the bridge is no more! Case closed.”

Will PM AAB now use the same prime-ministerial line against those Penang UMNO Youths?

I do wonder whether their alleged economic grievances are:

(1) true, or
(2) a mere case of ‘grabbing’ more from ‘others’, or
(3) a seasonal manifestation – hey hey hey, UMNO party general assembly is just around the corner, or
(4) a staged diversion to draw attention from UMNO’s major loose cannon going around, or
(5) a staged ‘battle’ of ‘siapa raja’ (who’s boss) in UMNO, or
(6) 40 more thieves looking for more caves?

Poor Dr Koh Tsu Koon has now done a back flip. Retreating from his earlier position - that the state government did make efforts to raise the standard of living of the community in rural areas, and that all decisions on development in the state were made collectively by the State Executive Council including UMNO members - he has since invited UMNO Youth members to come forward to let him know of any unresolved issues.

Indirectly he conceded that, and thus passed the blame onto, the state executive councillor handling the portfolio concerned could have allowed some issues to remain unresolved. He said he would personally attend to the problems if so.

Here's a leader who has quietly shifted blame on his subordinates.

Then on 2nd thoughts, Dr Koh also included cost as a major impediment to promised development. He said that as the state lacked government-owned land, land purchases had to be made at market price. He moaned that the state government sometimes risked being challenged in court by land occupants.

What about the PORR case where the State government surrendered chucks of land to the contractor? Read an earlier posting Who benefits directly from PORR?

Then he went into ‘chummy’ mode by reminding everone that matters could be resolved in the Barisan spirit. He commented on PM AAB’s comment on Sunday that the Gerakan-led state government had aided Malays but the help thus far was not enough: “I welcome his advice and have always believed that no matter how much we have progressed and implemented projects, it is never enough. If we are always satisfied, there will be no motivation to do better.”

What can I say about UMNO’s favourite boy? ;-)

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