The Selangor government is not happy with PKR and PAS for twice being unable to meet the deadline in submitting their list of councillor candidates, said Teng Chang Khim, the state local government, study and research committee chairperson.

As a result, the state government has decided not to extend the tenure of the existing councillors after their period expires on Dec 31, he said.

“We are stern, that’s why we are not extending the tenures of the existing councillors... I cannot punish them,” he said.

“But I know they are rushing, I think they are serious, they have their problems. Sometimes it’s not easy to deal with so many appointments, it involves 180 (councillor vacancies) from both sides,” he said.

“It’s not easy, everyone want to (be) a councillor,” he told a press conference.

However, Teng refused to disclose the exact reasons for the delay, citing that this is their internal issues.

“As far as local council operations are concerned, even issuance of licences, there is no interuption,” he said.

He said the delay of development projects at one-stop centres involving the councillors for one month would only cause minimum interruption as the industry will take some time to recover from the holidays.

While stressing that the state government will continue to keep a 25 percent quota for NGO councillors, Teng said the state government needs to listen to Pakatan’s view before making any decisions.

“NGO (candidates) are appointed by the government comprising of political parties, so we have to listen to their voice,” he said.

In dealing with NGOs’ grouses which claimesd that NGO councillors weren’t “genuine”, Teng said the state government has adopted a new guideline - that the NGO candidates need to be nominated by their respective NGO and seconded by another NGO.

The state government has implemented stringent rules to improve the system following accusations that NGO candidates came from the political parties.

He said the state government no longer accepted the NGO candidates nominated by political parties, as the candidates may not be endorsed by the respective NGOs.

‘Utusan had taken my words out of context’

Meanwhile, Teng complained that several media, including Umno mouthpiece Utusan Malaysia and online news portal The Malaysian Insider, had misquoted him or made incorrect reports.

The headline ‘Selangor perlu ketepi dasar populis’ (Selangor needs to set aside populist policy) by the Malay daily had taken his words out of context by quoting him as saying he disagreed with the Selangor government.

NONE“Utusan wasn’t invited to cover the Selangor DAP yesterday,  but it dared to publish a report that twisted my statement, I condemn the report.

Teng (left) said he had explained at the convention yesterday that there should be more community programmes to enhance one’s capabilities such as tuition, instead of  coming up more welfare programmes like free water.

“We already enjoy 20 litres free water, it would not further beneficial to the public if we continue to expand free water to 40 litres or 60 litres. As a responsible government, we should do more programmes to enhance one’s capabilities,” he said.

“I even said, we need to teach people how to fish, but not to give them fishes.

“But I was reportedly to have criticise (the state government) for being populist, this is out of context,” he said.

“I also said since the state government will not increase assesment fees, we have to increase others revenue for development, so we have to review and increase licence fees,” he said.

“But I was reported as saying we were using four to 10 percent of the budget for development, as we want to implement populist programmes,” he said.

“I never said that we shouldn’t continue free water or stop the existing welfare policies,” he said.

“I’ve said that as an administrator, we shouldn’t expand the welfare (measures), we should look at the things from the perspective of an administrator, we should come up with good policies rather than welfare policies.”

Teng urged the media to amend their mistakes. But if they failed to do so, Teng said, he has no money nor time to sue them in court.

Utusan had quoted Teng as saying the Selangor governement shouldn’t continue its populist policies in its second term to rule the state.

Teng was also reported as saying the state government should be visionary where welfare is concerned, and shouldn't introduce populist measures such as free water.