No competition between Khir and me, says Noh

Umno Selangor deputy state chief Noh Omar today flatly denied that there was competition between him and state opposition leader Mohd Khir Toyo with illegal sand mining being the bone of contention.

According to him all the brouhaha over it was the work of Pakatan Rakyat which he said, was incapable of explaining the problem.

"When the opposition could not deal with the issue, they would create a problem. To deflect the issue, they claim that we are fighting in Umno. This is their stategy from then until now," he said.

The ‘rift' between Noh ( right) and Khir was pointed out by Pakatan's Sri Muda assemblyman Shuhaimi Shafiei yesterday who alleged that Noh was trying to champion the issue to humble former Selangor chief minister Khir.

Shuhaimi also claimed that Noh was trying to contain the popularity of Khir Toyo in the party with the next general election in mind.

Noh however brushed aside the claims, saying they had planned for them to take different courses of action in tackling illegal sand mining.

He said that Khir, as the opposition leader in the state assembly, would focus on the explaining the issue at the grassroots level.

"Previously, whenever we bring up an issue, sometimes there is only one opposition member who speaks. But now our arrangement is for Khir to speak to the grassroots.

"He would go down to expose how the Selangor government, which, after only two years in power, is now very ravenous in mining sand. That is his job as the opposition leader," he said.

Exposing corruption

Noh also explained that, his focus would be on exposing the alleged corruption in Kumpulan Semesta Sdn Bhd, the creation of the Pakatan Rakyat-led government that has become a major player in the industry.

"If you observe, my statement and Khir's ( left ), they are different," said Noh adding that Umno Selangor will continue explaining the issue through an 18 talk series set to kick off next week for three consecutive weeks.

"In these ceramahs, everybody (in Umno Selangor) will be involved, including Khir. So there is no question of my (approach) being different (from) Khir. We have arranged the issues.

"When we reveal (this from) left to right, we see that the people are more aware of the defects of the state government.

"So, in terms of conflict, there is none. There is no question about competition, but (difference) in strategy. This is the stategy from both of us," he told reporters after launching the International Food and Beverages Trade Fair in Putra World Trade Centre today.