INTERVIEW Selangor Umno deputy chief Noh Omar claims that current menteri besar Khalid Ibrahim is no match to predecessor Dr Mohd Khir Toyo, judging from Pakatan Rakyat's two-year rule of the state.

In fact, the brash spoken Umno veteran described Khalid's administration " banyak buat tahi (caused a lot of sh*t)". 

NONE Noh ( right ), who is also agriculture and agro-based industries minister, told Malaysiakini that in any event, it is unfair to compare Khalid to Khir, who had helmed the state for eight years.

While he did not claim that Khir's tenure was better, he strongly believes that Khalid's administration has caused more problems in the short two years that Pakatan has been in power.

Noh then proceeded to peel away at the state like an onion, revealing stunting state development and exacerbating inter-ethnic conflict.

Excerpts from the interview follow, edited for language and brevity.

Malaysiakini: How would you rate the performance of Selangor MB Khalid Ibrahim as opposed to former MB Khir Toyo ?

azlan Noh Omar: From a performance standpoint, you can't really compare the two. It's like comparing a two-year-old to an eight-year-old. Khalid ( right) has been in office for two years while Khir ( left ) had eight. They are not the same. It is not fair.

However, Khalid while being only two years in office, dah banyak buat tahi (has mired the state in problems). The state is in chaos, like it has been attacked by a garuda (legendary monster bird).

However, I don't think that he will be there long, come next election, he will go.

What are the problems faced by Pakatan-led Selangor?

If I want to speak about the issues in Selangor, there are a lot, not only (Pakatan's) election promises but also issues which they played up, for example the one being hotly discussed now - the sand issue.

Looking at the statements that the MB issued, he never answered about corruption and abuse in Kumpulan Semesta Sdn Bhd (KSSB) .

The issue here is not how much sand has been mined, that is secondary, the rakyat can see that clearly with their eyes whether is there are holes in the ground or not. Under whose reign the sand was mined, the rakyat can see and judge for themselves.

NONE But what the rakyat cannot see is the corruption and abuse in the sand mining issue. The lie that was told when they say that under KSSB's administration everything is transparent.

It is not so (transparent). This is what they need to explain to the rakyat. Not who mined the most sand.

Are crony companies of the Selangor government?

I say this because of KSSB. How is it that a company is given preferential treatment, given privileges? Given such a high discount. Other companies are given only 50 sen discount per tonne but KSSB is given up to RM4?

Why? Who is this company? Where has all the money from the company gone to? After getting all the huge discounts from the state?

Why must there be crony companies? During the last elections, they promised that there will be no more crony companies. No more preferential treatment. Everyone is to be treated the same. But now they too have cronies. This they must answer.

If BN does this, they will say we give special treatment, they say we are corrupt and choose our cronies, but in the end they too chose only one company. This is what a crony is.

They should explain, where did the money from the company go to? I don't want to accuse them but maybe it is this crony company that is distributing political funds to all their political parties.

Maybe, I don't know, but why is there a crony company? What is their purpose of giving the project to a crony company?

What about the state of development in Selangor?

The rakyat must realise that development in the state is clearly stunted. This is because the state and the federal government cannot see eye to eye. It is the rakyat that loses out.

NONE For example for my ministry, we have two projects, which had already begun but were stopped by the state. They sue us, they take away our construction machines. They even want us to pay compound of nearly RM800,000 to release our machines and continue the project.

We proceeded with the project as we have always had in the 53 years we have been in power. Whatever developments we do for the rakyat, the state will usually cooperate. Our money, but their land.

We usually have no problems from the state. But they block us now. We had already informed them about the project but they took too long to answer.

We had to proceed. We do this project for the rakyat. For the farmers to increase their income. Pakatan was the one who promised to take care of the farming community. Now when we do a project for the rakyat, what do we get?

But they want to show their power, as they own the land, they can take action against us. They stop the project for the rakyat. What kind of government is this?

They accuse the BN government of using crony companies in projects. But in a project you must engage a company to do it. If not who is going to do the job, ghosts?

If they say that all federal contracts use BN cronies and the state will not cooperate, how are federal development projects going to be run? If that is the case, Selangor will never be developed.

What are we to do? Engage ghosts to do the job? Or perhaps let the state do it? Maybe that is what they want? Maybe only then they will be happy.

What are the problems in the state's administration?

This is what is strange with this MB, I think that he does not have a system. Any exco member that he wants to ask to solve a problem, he does so indiscriminately. Even when it is something the exco member knows nothing about.

NONE I don't understand why he asked (Elizabeth) Wong (r ight) to handle the issue of agriculture, why not that fellow (exco member) Yaakop Sapari who is in charge of agriculture? Wong handles environmental affairs, she does not know anything about agriculture.

Like when I fought with another exco member Ronnie Liu last time about land to build housing for fishermen. This is an agricultural problem. I know that it involved local council land but let us solve issues rather as opposed to following the municipal way.

Last time they wanted to use tithe money to run projects because they claim we do not give allocations for development. Now we have given money and projects, they do not want them.

I am not going to give them money to put into their pockets just like that. Sorry, I will not do that. Last time we gave them allocations for roads and building development. But they used the money for other projects. There were no buildings and roads built.

You can go ask the district officers, they do not have work now, the assistant district officers in charge of development no longer have anything to do. How can they have work when there are no more state projects?

Are you saying that the Pakatan administration does not care for the rakyat?

How can they NONE say that they are a state that is fighting for the rakyat. If they say they are a state that cares for the welfare of the people, look at the welfare contributions to the less fortunate.

The state only give RM70 per person but the federal government gives RM300.

I challenge them to give RM300 like the federal government. Then they can say that they are a state that cares.

Is temple demolition and racism an issue for the state?

Temple demolitions have been going on since a long time. But last time it was never politicised. It was done in a proper and harmonious way. Now it is politicised.

About racism, how can they say that they are sensitive to all races, the issue of the temple they wanted to build in a Malay-majority area. In the end the Malays protested. And now some of those who protested have been fined, found guilty by the courts, how is this?

 

Tomorrow: Umno's plans to wrest Selangor from Pakatan Rakyat