Kelantan state officials today criticised the mainstream media for allegedly manipulating the Sultan's speech at the opening of the state assembly's 2005 Budget session yesterday.

State executive councillor Husam Musa said the news reports, which claimed that the Sultan had rapped the PAS government for failing to draw investments, were "totally misleading".

"The state government is responsible in preparing the Sultan's speech. Now how is it possible for the government to write a speech and hentam (condemn) itself!

"The speech was like his earlier speeches where he had commended some of the efforts made by the state government and offered some constructive criticisms. However none of his praises were reported but his criticism was blown out of proportion," he added when contacted.

Husam, who oversees the state planning, finance and economics unit, said the Sultan is aware of the efforts made to bring in investors and among them, was the recent 'successful' visit to China.

He said it was unethical for the dailies to "abuse" the Sultan's speech in such a manner.

Husam explained that the Sultan's criticism was aimed at spurring officers manning the related departments to work more harder and effectively.

"We have investors in the agriculture and real estate sectors. I don't think setbacks in land approval is the only reason behind slow business activities. There are other contributing factors including approval by the federal government," he said.

Selective reporting

Echoing similar views was state executive councillor Mohd Amar Abdullah, who questioned the dailies' failure to report the Sultan's approval of how PAS was successfully combating poverty.

"He had praised our efforts in bringing down the poverty rate (from 18.7 percent in 1999 to 12.4 percent in 2002). He also commended our education sector where our students had achieved excellent results. Why was that not reported as well?

He said the key issue of the speech was to promote good rapport between the state government and federal government.

"Malaysia is a federalism state and His Highness mainly stressed the importance of working with the federal government which we have no qualms with," he added.