The officer in-charge of Penang’s Economic Equitable Agenda (or Agenda Ekonomi Saksama - AES) is upset with PKR’s Penanti assemblyperson Norlela Ariffin for failing to refer cases of poverty to him.

Instead of referring the cases to him, AES special tasks officer Ab Wahab Long said Norlela had preferred to seek publicity by making baseless claims in the media.

Wahab expressed disappointment that despite several briefings on the programme being organised in Penanti, the numbers of participants attending the events were far less if compared with other constituencies.

The AES programme, which is directly under Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng, is to ensure that all families are provided with a minimum RM790 per month. If a family earns less than the amount, the state tops up the amount to RM790.

“Since March 2009, 1,244 poor families have benefited from the AES programme; up to March this year, the Penang government has spent RM17.7 million on the matter,” Wahab said in a statement today.

“Malay families (1,037 or 83.36 percent) are the largest number of recipients of the programme, followed by Indians (123 or 9.89 percent) and Chinese (82 or 6.6 percent), while other ethnic groups comprise of two recipients or 0.16 percent."

Wahab said Norlela ( photo ) herself was present at the briefings, and also at the recent one, attended by about 40 people, which was held from 8.30pm to midnight on March 18.

He expressed regret that Norlela, while in possession of his personal mobile phone number, did not inform him about the needy which she mentioned in the media.

“Why raise the issue in the mainstream media, which is owned by BN who prefer to find fault and undermine the state government which has been making a good effort to eradicate poverty in Penang,” Wahab said.

He was referring to a report in the New Straits Times on Sunday, which quoted Norlela as saying “I do not know why my motions were thrown out so many times but it will not stop me from speaking up for the people who face flash floods and power outages in the rural areas".

She said this in a dialogue titled “ Adun Buat Apa (what do elected assemblypersons do)” organised by the state legislative assembly last Saturday.

In the event, Norlela claimed that her motions on allocation for her constituency were rejected 13 times, an issue she had raised earlier in the previous state assembly proceedings.

Don't jump to conclusion

When contacted, Norlela said Wahab should have asked her directly about her remarks at the dialogue, instead of jumping to conclusion that she had criticised his programme or the state government.

“How can the Chief Minister’s Department base its response on a report in the NST without checking with me what I actually said.

“I was not angry when I mentioned the problem with the needy in my constituency. I was very relaxed and was merely stating the matter as it is,” said Norlela.

She added that she has video recordings of her session and urged Wahab and the CM’s Department to view them before issuing a statement to blast her.

According to Norlela, the CM’s office wants her to hold a press conference to “say the truth and say that the NST is telling a lie and you should proceed to take legal action” against the newspaper.