INTERVIEW | Seri Bendahara, the official residence of the Malacca chief minister, was open to the public from May 15 to June 14, after Pakatan Harapan captured the state.

Newly minted Chief Minister Adly Zahari said at that time that he made the decision to open up the extravagant residence to the public to show the people the life led by the previous leaders.

The residence, located in Ayer Keroh, quickly became a tourist attraction, drawing at least 1,000 visitors a day.

Now, the Harapan state government is still deciding on what to do with the residence, which was constructed in 2004 during the administration of former chief minister Mohd Ali Rustam.

But one thing is for certain, Adly will not be moving into Seri Bendahara.

"Currently, I am staying at Bukit Peringgit, not the old chief minister's house, but I am using the guesthouse (at the government quarters).

"So I have changed the guesthouse at Bukit Peringgit into the chief minister's residence," he told Malaysiakini in an interview at his office in Seri Negeri, the administrative centre of the state government.

Adly said there are plans to use Seri Bendahara (photo) as a government venue to hold events or meetings.

However, he added, there is no plan to sell the building or to privatise it.

The previous state government was paying more than RM30,000 a month for the electricity bill of Seri Bendahara, Adly revealed.

The problem was that the residence uses a centralised air conditioning unit, so even if only one room was being used or only a few people were in the residence, they would have to turn on the entire unit.

Savings for state government

By minimising the usage of Seri Bendahara, Adly said it would result in a lot of savings for the state government.

"Our basis is, we want to increase revenue and savings for the state."

For example, he said, the state government usually spends about RM3.3 million on Hari Raya celebrations, but the budget was reduced to RM1.6 million this year.

Adly added that they have also abolished six state government agencies which they felt were redundant.

He wanted to channel these savings to the rakyat so that the state government could increase the standard of living for the people, he said.

"If we can save, it will benefit the rakyat. When we saved on the Hari Raya celebrations, the extra budget we immediately channelled to Japerun."

Japerun, or Development Committee and Coordination of the Legislative Assembly, is an initiative established by the state government to assist in planning and improving development within the state.

Some plans, Adly said, were gleaned from Harapan's experience in governing Selangor and Penang, such as the ideas to provide their citizens with medical cards and free bus service.

But, he pointed out that these initiatives were all already included in Harapan's manifesto to the rakyat during the 14th general election campaign period.

Their immediate goal now, he said, was to implement as many of those promised initiatives as they can within this five-year term.

Adly noted that within the first week of Harapan being in office in Malacca, they have reopened scholarships and loans to students.

He said they have also announced that the chief minister can only remain for two terms and have decided that all logging and sand digging projects must be stopped.

They will also implement free parking statewide on weekends, including in tourist areas, he said.

"These are all policies which will positively impact the rakyat quickly."