Selangor water restructuring cancellation: State government playing politics - Analysts

The cancellation of water restructuring agreement between Selangor state government and the federal government seems to be dictated by political interests rather than to fulfill the needs of the people.

According to political analysts, the state government, led by Menteri Besar Mohamed Azmin Ali, does not seem to try to solve people's problems and instead are playing political games by challenging the federal government.

Indeed these political analysts anticipated that whatever dealing the state government entered into or made with the federal government during the administration of former Menteri Besar, Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim, will be challenged by Pakatan Rakyat including water issues and other issues in the future.

The dean of College of Law, Government and International Studies, University Utara Malaysia (UUM), Dr Mohd Azizuddin Mohd Sani said the decision by Mohamed Azmin was as if it was made without thinking about the consequences to the people in Selangor.

"He was willing to do it (cancelling the water agreement) maybe because he thinks the effects of the revocation to the people of Selangor is not that bad. He also felt it will not affect the Pakatan Rakyat in Selangor.

"But we all know that Selangor has faced severe water problems before this and I believe he is aware of that but I'm not sure if he has another alternative to tackle it later," he said when contacted by Bernama, yesterday.

Mohamed Azmin on Monday announced that the state government has decided to cancel the restructuring of water agreement with the federal government signed on Sept 12 last year.

Mohd Azizuddin said since becoming the menteri besar, Mohamed Azmin was seen trying to rectify what was called as an 'administrative error' done by the former menteri besar for the sake of making other Pakatan Rakyat leaders satisfied.

"The former Menteri Besar(Abdul Khalid) tried to befriend the federal government to ensure that any projects that will benefit the people of Selangor can be implemented (in Selangor), but Mohamed Azmin takes action that will backfire on Pakatan Rakyat," he said.

Another political analyst, Professor Azizul Sani, who is also a UUM lecturer said the action taken by Mohamed Azmin was predictable since the Pakatan Rakyat camp, especially the Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) disagreed with certain matters done by Abdul Khalid during his administration.

"Now we can see that Pakatan Rakyat does not agree with Abdul Khalid's policies and they take advantage of the opportunity to change what has been implemented during the previous administration.

"For example, the issues pertaining to compensation payment involving Abdul Khalid's former special officers, cancellation of KIDEX and now water," he told Bernama, adding that Mohamed Azmin seemed to be impatiently waiting to be change all these when he started to hold the post.

Azizul said the Pakatan Rakyat seemed confident that the decision they made would not affect the people of Selangor, but, to a certain extent, the negative impact would be evident when problems such as the water supply crisis occurred.