THE Pakatan Harapan-Barisan Nasional (PH-BN) alliance need not be afraid of the State Government 4 (SG4) initiative which focuses solely on coordination and economic development of the four Perikatan Nasional (PN) states as opposed to a coalition of political alignment.
In addition to merely streamlining the coordination of the four PAS-ruled states, namely Kedah, Kelantan, Perlis and Terengganu, the SG4 merely focuses on a few more critical issues, according to Terengganu PAS information working committee member Ahmad Fahmi Mokhtar.
“Even before this, there was coordination and togetherness among the four states,” he pointed out in an opinion piece posted on the PAS Facebook page.
“Examples include (i) gambling ban policy in the four states; (ii) three of the four states have announced that they will provide allocations for opposition state assemblymen (which will benefit PH-BN); and (iii) parallel National Day Celebration logo with the Federal government (another beneficial approach to PH-BN).”
In essence, Ahmad Fahmi reckoned that with the existence of SG4, critical issues such as management, economic development, education, Islamic law and so on can be more comprehensively coordinated for these four states.
“Therefore, the PH-BN leadership need not feel offended or jeopardised by the emergence of a good initiative at the state level,” he assured.
The political analyst also highlighted three other reasons as to why the SG4 initiative is not detrimental to the PH-BN alliance:
- The SG4 is not unconstitutional as per the argument of Terengganu Menteri Besar and PAS vice-president Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Samsuti Mokhtar in that it only involves the jurisdiction of the states in accordance with the provisions allowed in the constitution.
- Allegation by the leadership of the unity government who claimed that SG4 does not respect or turn its back on the spirit of federalism is untrue. In fact, this SG4 was developed to ensure that not only the spirit of federalism is respected but that the practice of federalism in the country must be implemented despite difference in ruling parties.
In fact, the act of blocking projects to non-PH-BN states, restricting state allocations, rejecting requests to meet and cancelling the rights of the state is a betrayal of the spirit of federalism in the country.
- Since the PH-BN leadership is busy giving a negative perception of SG4, what are the initiatives of the states under PH-BN to advance the state? At least these so-called “backward” states have taken steps forward to drive their economy and leverage assets in SG4.
“Don’t because the states under PH-BN are unable to come out with their own idea of developing the states they lead, they then disparage the good initiatives by PN-ruled states,” added Ahmad Fahmi. – Sept 29, 2023
