Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow said the state government is now stable and fully supported by Penang voters so there was no need for such an alliance. — Picture by Sayuti Zainudin
GEORGE TOWN, Dec 1 — The Penang government does not plan to form any alliance with the opposition parties in the state, the state legislative assembly heard today.
Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow said the state government is now stable and fully supported by Penang voters so there was no need for such an alliance.
He said the state has implemented several agendas under the Confidence and Supply Agreement (CSA) signed by Pakatan Harapan (PH) leaders at the federal level.
“One of it is the amendment to the state constitution in 2012 to prevent an elected assemblyman from hopping parties,” he said.
Other than this, he said the state legislative assembly has also approved the 2018 amendment to the state constitution to limit an individual from holding the chief minister’s post to only two terms.
“The Penang state government, under PH, often leads the way in bringing changes to ensure the people’s rights are defended at all time,” he said.
Chow was reading his reply to an oral question by Dr Afif Bahardin (Bersatu-Seberang Jaya) on whether the state will offer an agreement similar to the CSA to the opposition for the sake of Penang people.
Meanwhile, Dr Afif also asked Chow if the state is ready to provide the same amount of allocations to the opposition assemblymen as the ones allocated for PH assemblymen.
Chow replied that the opposition assemblymen in Penang are receiving allocations of between RM300,000 and RM400,000 from the federal government.
“So we believe that the opposition assemblymen have received adequate funding from the federal government,” he said.
He added that PH assemblymen in the state were not afforded the same treatment from the federal government as they did not receive any allocation from the federal government.