KUALA LUMPUR: Selangor Menteri Besar, Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali, has been accused of abusing his immunity in the state legislative assembly to ‘spin’ facts on the state’s water issue.
Umno Youth Urban Affairs and Housing exco member, Datuk Nazir Hussin Aktar Hussin, said Azmin’s claim that the Federal government is responsible for the state’s water woes is not only extreme, but also ridiculous.
What is more regrettable, he said, is that Azmin was had used the state assembly to slander the Federal government.
“He claimed that the Federal government was the one which had prevented the supply of water to Selangor, which led to the recent water crisis in the state.
“Why didn’t he read out the full contents of the discussion with the Federal government, in the assembly? Enough already with the lying and hiding the full story,” he said in a statement.
Nazir Hussin said Azmin appears to be attempting to stoke the anger among the people of Selangor by accusing the Federal government of preventing water supply from reaching the people.
Nazir Hussin said he sympathised with the people of Selangor who had been duped by Azmin for his own political gains.
“The contradictory statements made during his speech also demonstrated his attempts to twist the facts.
“The words ‘‘berhenti penyaluran’ (stop the flow) and ‘menangguhkan sementara’ (temporarily suspend) are two entirely different things. This proves that Azmin had openly duped the State Assembly Speaker,” he said.
Nazir Hussin said a mass demonstration will be organised in front of the Selangor Menteri Besar’s Office in Shah Alam if Azmin does not retract his claim or apologise before Friday, April 6.
The water issue, he said, has for too long plagued the people of Selangor.
“It is best he admits the failures of the Pakatan Harapan state government instead of playing the blame game and slandering the Federal government.
“He has yet to answer once on the issue of Selangor’s affordable homes, and is now trying to spin facts on the water issue with baseless claims.
“We will await Azmin’s apology until Friday,” he said.
Azmin, during the state legislative assembly sitting on March 28, had claimed that the federal government was preventing Selangor from providing treated water to the people. He had told the assembly that the cabinet, on March 20, had decided not to allow treated water from the Langat 2 plant to be given to Air Selangor to be channeled for the people.
Last month, 2.5 million residents in the Klang Valley were left without water for almost a week following critical maintenance works carried out at the Sungai Selangor Phase 3 (SSP3) Water Treatment Plant.
Experts have since then noted that the problems were largely due to the PKR-led state government’s failure to complete its water restructuring exercise. The restructuring, said experts, is a necessary component towards ensuring that Selangor’s water infrastructure is upgraded.