PENANG Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow should not downplay or trivialise the appointment of prominent lawmaker Datuk Baldev Singh Gurchan Singh as the chairman of the Penang Appeals Board.
The said board comes under the Freedom of Information Enactment 2010. The other five board members were also appointed consisting mostly of lawyers.
The motion for the appointment of the Appeals Board was unanimously passed in the recent Penang state assembly.
It was none other than deputy chief minister II (DCMII) Jagdeep Singh Deo who presented the motion to be adopted in the state assembly.
Surprisingly, Baldev’s appointment never caught the eyes of the state assemblymen, particularly members of the opposition.
The issue is not about Baldev being a senior lawyer nor his knowledge of legal matters. Unfortunately, he happens to be the father-in-law of Jagdeep.
At least the matter of family relationship should have been made known in the state assembly before the vote was taken. This did not happen.
Chow probably knew that Baldev Singh was the father-in-law of Jagdeep but why didn’t he stop his deputy from proposing the latter’s name?
Scrapping the Appeals Board
Why must Chow have to wait until the family relationship was exposed by the secretary general of the United Rights of the Malaysian Party (Urimai) Satees Muniandy?
It was the exposure of the family link by Satees that Baldev has rejected his appointment as the chairman of the Appeals Board.
The question is why didn’t Baldev reject the appointment before the matter of family relationship was exposed in the media?
Chow probably did not think that Baldev’s appointment was improper even though he might have known about the family link.
Chow seems to be impressed by the experience and credentials of Baldev. There are no indications on the part of Chow to admit that Baldev’s appointment shouldn’t have happened as it was an act of nepotism or favouritism.
Chow also commented that the Appeals Board holds no great significance to the state because there have not been any appeals for some time.
Well, if the Appeals Board holds no significance, then the state should scrap it. Chow should not trivialise the Appeals Board nor the Freedom of Information Act.
In a similar note, the Perikatan Nasional (PN) opposition, too, has been a great disappointment in Penang. How could the elected representatives unanimously endorse the appointment of the Appeals Board members, including Baldev as its chairman?
Didn’t the opposition do some homework on the matter? It is beyond doubt that the DAP-led government misled the elected representatives in the state assembly of the integrity and professionalism in the appointment of board members.
The Penang state government must urgently re-convene an urgent state assembly to address the deliberate withholding of information pertaining to the appointment of the Appeals Board rather than to subtly blame Urimai for exposing the issue in the public. – June 3, 2024
Former DAP stalwart and Penang chief minister II Prof Ramasamy Palanisamy is chairman of the United Rights of Malaysian Party (Urimai) interim council.
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
Main image credit: The Star/New Straits Times
