Menteri Besar Abdul Khalid Ibrahim has shrugged off the memorandum he received from the Selangor's Backbenchers Club (BBC) urging him to increase allocation for state development in the state’s 2014 budget, stating that he feels no pressure over it.

Khalid said there is nothing out of the ordinary with receiving such a memorandum, especially since many quarters have done the same, and that he considered it a “new culture as we work for the rakyat”.

“No pressure,” the MB said with a laugh during a press conference this evening.

“The rakyat wants knows what we (state government) are doing. Sometimes the rakyat, sometimes the assemblypersons and at times MPs (want to know). That’s why we are prepared to answer them and meet with them.”

He was asked to comment of whether he was pressured by the memorandum as he is viewed as ‘stingy’ when it comes to spending the state cash reserves, which amounts to a whopping RM3 billion.

The memorandum, dated Oct 7, was signed by representatives of all three Pakatan Rakyat component parties and claimed the state planned to slash development expenditure by RM100 million.

Khalid said this was not accurate as the state budget for 2014 has not yet been finalised. The memorandum was therefore a premature reaction.

“We have two budget items that are yet to be approved by the exco,” he said.

“We will table it on Nov 18. This will be approved only a week before the budget as they are sensitive matters,” he added, without elaborating.

Khalid gave an assurance that he was prepared to meet with exco members and state assemblypersons plus PKR groups to find an appropriate spending formula.

“I admit there have been (state) government decisions which are not 100 percent right but we accept the (principles) of transparency. So we correct it and (after that) we do more work so that everyone is involved in development together,” he said.

'I'm open to feedback'

Khalid said he was always open to feedback and gave an example that on land matters alone, he has received nearly 170 memoranda since his first term as Selangor MB.

Defending her boss, Khalid’s political secretary yesterday  Faekah Husin said yesterday that Khalid was not stingy but prudent.

Faekah cited three cases in which the Selangor government has been saving up for since 2008 as the federal government has pulled back its promises after failing to win the state back from the opposition.

These were projects to construct a third bridge to ease the congestion in Klang (mooted since 2008), restructuring of the Selangor water services industry by taking over water concessionaire companies, and a much-needed new hospital in Klang as the Tengku Ampuan Rahimah Hospital was short of beds and people were sleeping on the sidewalks.