Johor PH to request for party reps to sit in JTPD

JOHOR BAHRU: Johor Pakatan Harapan (PH) is appealing to the state government’s discretion in allowing the party’s elected representatives to sit in the District Development Action Committee (JTPD).

Johor PKR deputy chairman Jimmy Puah Wee Tse said this was to ease work coordination since the Barisan Nasional (BN) and PH are now allies at the federal government level.

“Johor PH will write an official letter on this matter soon. I hope the state government, especially Menteri Besar Datuk Onn Hafiz Ghazi will give due consideration to allow PH assemblymen and lawmakers to sit as members in the JTPD.

“As we are now an alliance at the federal level, we need to participate in monthly meetings at the district office for work coordination,” he told reporters after a meet and greet session in Tebrau parliamentary constituency here yesterday.

In the 15th general election (GE15), Puah (PH-PKR) defeated Mohamad Isa Mohamad Basir (Perikatan NasionalBersatu) and Datuk Nicole Wong Siaw Ting (Barisan Nasional-MCA) to win the Tebrau parliamentary seat with a majority of 30,720 votes.

On Nov 28 last year, the Johor state legislative assembly (DUN) reportedly rejected the proposal to discuss the involvement of opposition assemblymen as members of the JTPD.

The then Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Hasni Mohammad reportedly said the state government had sought an explanation from the federal government on the matter and through the feedback from the Implementation Coordination Unit (ICU) of the Prime Minister’s Department, the term assemblymen in the JTPD was referring to assemblymen from the government bloc.

However, Hasni was quoted as saying that as a strategic partner, the state government was pleased to invite all PH assemblymen as observers in the JTPD meeting, which meant that they would be invited to attend every meeting.