GEORGE TOWN: Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow has shot down a proposal by Parti Amanah Negara to fill the state executive councillor post left vacant by PKR’s Dr Afif Bahardin yesterday.
Chow stressed nothing had changed.
“I think it is clear from my statement (yesterday) when I asked PKR to suggest several names to fill the former state Health Committee chairman’s post and not Amanah.
“So, it remains status quo,” he told newsmen here this afternoon after the closing of the 2020 International Women’s Day celebration.
Yesterday, Penang Amanah chairman Dr Roslan Ahmad had expressed hope that Chow would consider their Permatang Pasir assemblyman Muhammad Faiz Fadzil to fill Dr Afif’s position.
He had said they were confident of Faiz’s capability, experience and professionalism to take up the post.
Penang PKR is expected to submit several names to Chow within this week.
Chow, however, refused to dwell into whether DAP had a hand in Dr Afif’s resignation.
“I don’t want to be commenting on the discussions between Dr Afif and I. What is important is the outcome from the discussion where Dr Afif has submitted his resignation.
“What we are hearing now is only in bits and pieces and not the whole picture. Anyway, I don’t want to dwell into it as it may make others look bad,” he added.
Chow announced Dr Afif’s resignation with immediate effect as the state executive councillor yesterday.
Dr Afif, in a separate press conference, admitted that he was pressured by various quarters to relinquish his post.
He said that he had been pressured to do so by the party leadership at the national and state levels following the internal political crisis within the party.
Yesterday, acting state PKR chairman Muhammad Bakhtiar Wan Chik was reported saying Chow had called him on Monday night, informing him the decision from the DAP emergency meeting, on their intention to drop Dr Afif from the Penang government since he was part of the "team of betrayers" that brought down the Pakatan Harapan federal government.
Dr Afif has always been deemed as former PKR deputy president Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali’s loyalist.