No room for non-performers

Johor Mb’s bold move in the recent exco reshuffle seen as necessary to keep everyone on their toes.

MURMURS about “one or two” Johor executive councillors being dropped began last year, so there was no raised eyebrow when a state exco reshuffle was finally announced two weeks ago.

The chatter then was that the performance of these Yang Berhormat had not been up to the mark and that they were not achieving the KPIS set by Johor Mentri Besar Datuk Onn Hafiz Ghazi following the state election in March 2022.

Apparently, some of them were often late or even “MIA” (missing in action) at official functions.

In one incident, the exco in charge did not turn up at an annual general meeting of a prominent club, despite Onn Hafiz being there as the guest of honour.

The YB later told the club members about getting the date mixed up.

The organiser ended up putting a bomba representative in the front row seat meant for the YB.

Onn Hafiz, who is from Umno, had described the Feb 13 reshuffle as “minor” but many others see it as a major revamp as Barisan Nasional has never dropped its serving exco members in the state in more than 20 years.

During the tenure of a previous Mentri Besar – Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin – there was some reshuffling and a new appointment of exco only after Datuk Abdul Latif Bandi resigned in 2017 after being charged with corruption.

His portfolios were then temporarily designated to the other exco members before a replacement was named.

(Abdul Latif was ultimately freed of all corruption charges.)

During Pakatan Harapan’s rule, at least two assemblymen were dropped when Datuk Dr Sahruddin Jamal of Bersatu was sworn in as Mentri Besar following the death of fellow party member Datuk Osman Sapian in 2019.

The Feb 13 reshuffle, which saw one exco removed and six others had their portfolios changed, was “major”, said Johor Umno information chief Datuk Jais Md Sarday.

“I have served as an exco member for two terms, one each under Khaled and Tan Sri Abdul Ghani Othman.

“During Ghani’s time, there was a switch in the portfolio for religion, and another when Latif Bandi resigned. Nobody was ever dropped before,” he said.

To him, the revamp was necessary to keep everyone on their toes, especially when Johor is focusing on huge projects such as the Special Financial Zone (SFZ) and Special Economic Zone (SEZ) between Johor and Singapore.

As one local Barisan leader remarked: “With the SEZ and SFZ, there will be a lot of foreign engagements, and I am sure talent and manpower will be on every investor’s mind.”

While some may see the reshuffle as “piling more work on those who can perform”, political scientist Assoc Prof Dr Mazlan Ali viewed it as a form of recognition.

“Leaders need this to help boost their political ambition,” he said.

Up until the last minute, there was talk that a Pakatan candidate would be included in the state exco line-up.

One name that kept popping up was Skudai assemblywoman Marina Ibrahim of DAP, who has a good relationship with the Johor palace.

Ultimately, the recent reshuffle maintained seven Umno excos (not counting Onn Hafiz) in the 10-member exco line-up.

Dr Mazlan Ali of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, however, explained that the line-up reflected Barisan’s big victory of having obtained two-thirds out of the 56 state seats during the 2022 state polls.

Umno alone captured 33 seats, four from MCA and three from MIC.

Pakatan won 12 seats, of which 10 were from DAP, one from PKR, and one from Amanah. Perikatan Nasional took three seats – two from Bersatu and one from PAS. Muda won one seat.

Dr Mazlan explained that cooperation between Barisan and Pakatan did not exist yet when the Johor state election was held in March 2022.

“It was only during the general election in November 2022 that the cooperation took off, which saw Pakatan representatives included in the state governments of Pahang and Perak as they had supported Barisan to continue to maintain the MB’S position.”

Dr Mazlan also did not think that Umno would give in to Pakatan’s request for councillor seats or the position of village heads or community leaders.

Johor has more than 300 councillors for 16 local councils statewide. Their term is expected to end next month.

A Pakatan leader was of the view that Johor Umno would not want to rock the boat and cause disunity among their grassroots members by sharing these positions.

“Look at some of the problems faced in Selangor when Barisan rejected the councillor positions and demanded for the post of village heads,” the Pakatan leader said, adding that the 12 Pakatan representatives in Johor were at least getting allocations to develop their constituencies.

Whether this reshuffle is a major or a minor one, Onn Hafiz’s move has sent a signal that non-performers have no place in the state administration.