Former Selangor Menteri Besar Abdul Khalid Ibrahim today skewered the man who took his job by saying that the state needs leaders who can wrap up the still unresolved water industry restructuring exercise.

Telling Azmin that his "honeymoon" is over, Khalid (IND-Port Klang) said the exercise which Khalid himself had initiated must be resolved for the rakyat’s sake.

"The honeymoon is over. In fact, we must work to stop politicking and prioritise the people’s future.

"We need to show the people that there is continuity and that election promises are fulfilled," he said while debating the royal address in the state assembly sitting today.

"We have to find leaders who can deliver and satisfy the people. I am not interested in leadership but I ask the assembly to be ready to make this change," Khalid (above) said.

Khalid was forced to leave office last year after PKR sacked him, citing non-cooperation with the party.

Among others, PKR claimed Khalid did not consult it on the water deal with the federal government.  

Azmin earlier said that the water deal is automatically dissolved when Putrajaya took over 26,000 kilometres of Selangor land.

The MB said this is because the deal only involves transfer of water assets and not land.

Deviant claim

Commenting on this, Khalid said this is a "deviant" (songsang) claim because Selangor has lost all sovereign rights on the land where water-related assets like pipes and treatment plants are.

Azmin argued that the federal Water Asset Management Company (PAAB) should only take the assets and not the land, but Khalid said the then BN-led state government gave up rights to the land when water was first privatised.

The water restructuring exercise aims to centralise management of water in one federal agency, instead of various corporate bodies.

Khalid added that Azmin’s statement linking the land assets to the Finance Ministry firm 1Malaysia Development Bhd’s debts is laughable as it is completely unrelated to terms of the agreement stipulated in the Water Services Industry Act 2006.