Umno vice-president and former Selangor menteri besar Muhammad Muhd Taib will not contest in the upcoming general election, contrary to speculations that he is making a political comeback.

His career was put on freeze after he was charged in Australia in 1997 for failing to declare foreign currencies worth A$1.26 million (then RM2.4 million) at the Brisbane airport in the previous year.

Muhammad, who is popularly known as 'Mike Tyson', also faced charges at home for failing to declare his assets.

Although he was acquitted of both charges in 1998, he had to give up his menteri besar post which he had held since 1986 and was also suspended from his Umno vice-president post then.

Apart from these, Muhammad was also dropped from the 1999 general election.

Meanwhile, present Selangor Menteri Besar Dr Mohd Khir Toyo will be defending his Sungai Panjang state seat against PAS newcomer Salbini Ismail, a retired state religious officer.

In the 1999 election, Mohd Khir had captured the seat with a mere 165 vote majority against a PAS candidate.

Earlier this week, he was rumoured to be in the running for a parliamentary seat, which in turn sparked off speculation that Selangor was going to get a new MB.

Umno Tanjung Karang deputy division chief Mohd Noh Omar was the hot favourite to replace Mohd Khir as menteri besar but today's announcement has rendered this possibility unlikely.

Mohd Noh, the parliamentary secretary in the Prime Minister's Department, has also been retained to defend his Tanjung Karang parliamentary seat which he won by over 2,000 votes in 1999.

Selangor has 22 parliamentary and 56 state constituencies up for grabs.

The four state incumbents dropped from the Barisan Nasional (BN) line-up are Shariff Jajang (Dengkil), Dr Zainal Abidin Ahmad (Dusun Tua), Norkhaila Jamaluddin (Taman Medan) and Lum Weng Keong (Bukit Lanjan).

PAS candidates

In another development, PAS Selangor will be fielding a number of new faces to contest in the upcoming general election.

Among them is a former Malaysian ambassador to the United Nations Yeop Adlan Che Ros, who has also served as the country's ambassador to Spain and Mexico.

He will contest for the Hulu Langat parliamentary seat against BN's Umno incumbent Badrul Hisham Abdul Aziz.

The battle for the seat is considered a 'hot affair' as the constituency encompasses the area where the government has proposed to build its controversial mammoth incinerator in Broga.

The opposition front Barisan Alternatif (BA) - which comprises PAS and Parti Keadilan Rakyat (Keadilan) - has vowed to scrap the project should it win the seat.

Other new faces to contest under a PAS ticket include Malaysian Ulama Association president Abdul Ghani Shamsudin (Tanjung Karang parliamentary seat), Shah Alam state mosque senior Imam Kamal Ashaari (Jeram state seat) and engineer Iskandar Abdul Samad (Pandan parliamentary seat).

The list also confirmed malaysiakini's speculation on the fielding of PAS Muslimat leaders namely Dr Siti Mariah Mahmud (Kota Raja parliamentary seat), Wan Hasrina Wan Hassan (Lembah Jaya state seat), Dr Halimah Ali (Selat Kelang state seat) and Mastura Muhamad (Lembah Jaya state seat).

Meanwhile PAS vice-president and Selangor chief Dr Hasan Mohd Ali will be defending his Sungai Burung state seat.

Renowned Ulama (religious scholar) Ismail Kamus will also be defending the Gombak Setia state seat.

On the other hand, Dr Shafie Abu Bakar, who won the Kajang state seat in the 1999 election, will this time around contest for the Bangi state seat.

For the Shah Alam parliamentary seat, PAS will field engineer Khalid Samad against Umno supreme council member Aziz Shamsuddin while PAS central committee member Dr Hatta Ramli will contest for the Gombak parliamentary seat and Taman Templer state seat.

Balanced development

During the launching of the list at the party headquarters in Kuala Lumpur last night, Hasan urged Selangor voters to give their mandate to BA to run the state if they want a balanced development and clean government.

He announced that among its proposed plan of action, the opposition front wants to set-up a Water Commission to settle the water supply problems in the state, revive local government elections and form an ombudsman commission.

Apart from scrapping the incinerator project, he also pledged that the BA government would cancel other development projects at hill slopes and water catchment areas.

He said the BA state government also planned to propose interest-free loans for government servants, eliminate quit rent for low cost house owners, 90-day maternity leave and a five-day working week for the public sector.