By Amar Shah Mohsen
SHAH ALAM, July 26 — The opposition is resorting to playing up federal issues in a desperate bid to capture support in Selangor after running out of ammunition to attack the state administration, said Menteri Besar Dato’ Seri Amirudin Shari.
The Selangor Pakatan Harapan (Harapan) chairman said this is after the state government responded to all recent accusations and criticisms hurled by political rivals, based on facts and figures.
“When they can’t attack the state, they start taking aim at the federal government. But how then can you take out your anger on the Selangor government?
“In the end, you are only going to punish the voters here. I think this is unfair and irresponsible,” he said in a podcast session with Studio Madani last night.
Among other things, Amirudin noted how Perikatan Nasional leaders had attempted to downplay Selangor’s economic achievements by claiming that the state has regressed in the past five years.
However, the menteri besar pointed out that data provided by the Statistics Department (DOSM) — that Selangor contributed 25.5 per cent of the country’s overall gross domestic product in 2022 — has effectively put to bed any such notion.
“DOSM’s report just proves that Selangor remains Malaysia’s economic powerhouse, and that our economy has been improving each year.”
Amirudin said as a result, the opposition shifted its attention to criticising the state for not spending enough for the rakyat, going by the increase in state reserves.
“But when I compared to my predecessor Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali, I noticed that Azmin only spent about RM1.3 billion for welfare programmes, whereas I spent RM2.3 billion in the past five years.
“What this means is that our reserves increased, but so did our spending,” he said.
Nonetheless, Amirudin is confident that voters in Selangor are rational enough to ensure continuity in the state by voting for Harapan.
