KUALA LUMPUR: If given a choice, incoming Seputeh MP Teresa Kok would prefer that the Prime Minister’s Department take care of Federal Territory affairs rather than have a separate minister.
“Look what happened with the former FT Minister (Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor) – all the project contracts were pushed through just because he wanted it to be approved,” she said today.
Her comment comes in the wake of controversy over 64 land transactions which were believed to have been conducted without open tenders and awarded to companies inexperienced in construction.
“If the ministry is placed directly under the Prime Minister’s department, we won’t have all these ‘deals’ being approved by just one minister.”
Kok said another example of abuse of power would be in restricting the decisions of the KL mayor. “Whenever previous KL mayors went against the FT Minister, they ended-up losing their jobs. Yet at the same time, people are pressuring the mayor to make decisions on certain things.”
She said the mayor was “usually stuck in a difficult position having to answer to the FT Minister”.
Kok refused to answer when asked if she expected to be appointed a minister. “Don’t ask me this kind of question, you need to understand that the country is a diversity and we need to cater to the different ethnicities.”
She said the appointment of minister was the prime minister’s prerogative. “Until then, we just need to wait patiently,” she said.
June 2, 2018