The PAS-led Kelantan government is considering a number of measures including legal action to stop political rivals from making "false statements" about mismanagement of forest reserves, said executive councillor Husam Musa.

He was referring in particular to allegations of illegal logging and mining, attributed to Sazmi Miah, the parliamentary secretary in the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.

Yesterday, Malay daily Utusan Malaysia published a photograph on the front page, showing the cleared highlands of the Lojing forest reserve in Ulu Kelantan. This was allegedly due to uncontrolled felling of trees as a result of poorly-managed logging and gold mining activities.

Describing the claims as "baseless and untrue", Husam said the matter may be referred to the state legal adviser.

"I have advised the menteri besar to consult the our legal adviser to look into the matter as the allegations are serious and could jeopardise our image and credibility. We do not want a repeat of such comments," he said.

Kelantan Forestry Department director Dahlan Taha confirmed that none of the forest reserves in the state had been affected by illegal logging.

He also clarified that the Utusan Malaysia photograph was not of the Lojing forest reserve as captioned.

"The photograph is of state land that has been re-classified for agricultural activities," he said when contacted.

'Be professional'

While not ruling out legal action, Husam - who heads the finance, planning and national development portfolio - said this was not his main concern.

"We are more concerned about finding ways to prevent the state government's image from being damaged by such statements. So all this may not necessarily end up in a law suit."

Husam said he would write officially to the minister to register a protest about Sazmi's "unprofessional conduct".

"I believe the ministry and its officials should be more professional in making statements. They must confirm their suspicions with the relevant departments before making a public statement," he said.

He also said this was not the first time Sazmi - who is member of Parliament for Machan in Kelantan - had made baseless allegations against the state government.

"He had claimed last year that PAS had blatantly allowed illegal logging in several areas, but when I challenged him to back his statements with hard facts, he did not come back to me. Now he is creating mischief again," he said.

Husam further said Sazmi was wrong in insinuating that the state government had allowed logging and mining activities in forest reserves and that the activities had been carried out without proper management.

State land

"First of all, the site is not a forest reserve. It is state land that has been gazetted for oil palm plantation and which has been cleared legally for this purpose. The allegation that the land area was more than 1,500 metres above sea level is also wrong," he said.

He said gold mining - which Sazmi claimed is taking place in the Sokortaku forest reserve in Tanah Merah, Kelantan - is untrue as well.

"The mining activities are legal...the land is not forest reserve but state land. The tender for logging and mining activities were openly made and awarded to companies which offered the best price.

"We practise transparency. I don't think the state should monitor their operations 24 hours when authorities like the department of environment are free to monitor them.

"If the departments think that the companies have breached any laws, they are free to take action. We are not like the Selangor government where the departments have to wait for the menteri besar's directive to act."