PAS to meet Guan Eng tomorrow over councillor’s sacking, worsening ties
Penang PAS, led by its deputy state commissioner Datuk Dr Mujahid Yusof Rawa, will meet Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng tomorrow to talk about the strain in ties between the party and the state government.
"We hope we will be able to resolve all the misunderstandings that have arisen.
"I will make sure that the meeting tomorrow will ease the situation, not aggravate it," he told The Malaysian Insider, adding that the meeting would be held at Lim's office at Komtar.
The meeting at 11am is expected to discuss all misunderstandings between both sides following a speech by PAS whip in the Penang Municipal Council, Iszuree Ibrahim, at the party's 60th general assembly in Johor last month.
Iszuree himself will also be present at the meeting to face Lim and explain his criticisms of the state government on land development issues, which he made during the party assembly.
Iszuree has been a vocal councillor on land development and heritage protection issues in Penang. The PAS national land bureau, in defending him, said Iszuree had raised such issues with the state government for some time but never received any response.
After the PAS muktamar, the Penang government suspended Iszuree from the finance, public health and planning standing committees last week. His allocations have also been frozen.
Now, there is mounting pressure from his own Pakatan Rakyat colleagues in the council to have him sacked as a councillor.
Mujahid, who is a PAS central committee member, said he hoped party members, namely those in Penang, would stop spreading the rumour that Iszuree had already been sacked.
"He has not been fired as a councillor yet. His tenure ends this December.
"He has only been suspended from the committees," said Mujahid, adding that such rumours were slanderous.
Mujahid, who is the Parit Buntar MP, also urged all quarters not to worsen the situation in Pakatan Rakyat. Problems, he said, should be solved at the discussion table.
He admitted that after Iszuree's speech, there were all sorts of slanderous remarks about PAS's relationship with the state government and DAP.
"There was talk that I had prepared Iszuree's speech for the muktamar (general assembly). That was not accurate.
"We only gave guidelines, not write the speech," he said.
Mujahid said some of the issues brought up by Iszuree were valid but agreed that the PAS general assembly was not the right forum for raising such issues.
"Yes, there was a memorandum sent about development issues, but it was done in a closed manner. It was not something that should have been said at the muktamar.
"Some issues highlighted (in the memorandum) had been addressed by the state government," Mujahid said. – October 1, 2014.
