KUALA LUMPUR, April 30 – A water expert, worried over the Selangor government’s “water politics”, has appealed to the people in the state to vote wisely in the Sunday polls to put an end to the five-year water problem.
Dr Ahmad Zaharuddin Sani Ahmad Sabri said Malaysia would not become a developed nation if the problem relating to water source and supply was not resolved.
“So I appeal (to you) to think, if we want our country to be developed in 2020. Your vote determines whether we remain in the old groove or we will be respected by the whole world,” he said in an interview with Bernama here.
Rejecting the Selangor state leaders’ call to return the mandate to the Pakatan Rakyat leaders in the Sunday polls, he said they had wavered so often in the water issue to the extent of causing hardship to the people.
“When the Selangor state government asks for another term, the main question is have they implemented the mandate, trust and responsibility given them five years ago?
“We comb their promises and we see the results of their promises. If we feel that the government of the day has kept its promises, set the yardstick that they are qualified to lead, then we vote for them.
“But if the people see that they have failed, cannot be depended on and their words are empty talk, then the people should think about their future,” he said.
He said that if the people realised that when they lay their hands on the ballot papers they were choosing the country’s direction, not the candidates, it would be easy to make their choices.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, in a series of campaigns in Selangor last week and working visits prior to this had stressed that the water problem would be effectively resolved if the people gave the Barisan National the mandate to rule the state again in the election.
Dr Zaharuddin, who is from Universiti Utara Malaysia, said the state government had issued all types of statements on a water solution for the past five years but to date no effective action had been taken.
“If the big problem is still there today, they give use no alternative. Are we to trust them?” he said. Referring again to the water problem, he said the state government had been repeating for the past five years that it could resolve the water problem but it was all empty talk.
“The nicest sentence that they string together is that they have engaged water experts but to this day I’m asking who are their experts. To date not even one name has been forthcoming.”
Dr Zaharuddin, who is now Deputy Director of the Institute of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s Thoughts, said he was offended when the Selangor state leaders disputed his qualification as a water expert in connection with his media statement on the the water issue in Selangor.
The academician, who wrote a Doctor of Philosophy thesis on water management in the Klang Valley in 2004, had carried out research in water management for 10 years while his working papers on water had been tabled at the local and international levels.
“When I commented on the water issue, they disputed who I was. Am I not an expert or is the menteri besar a water expert? Let’s see who is more credible in debating the water issue, the incumbent Selangor menteri besar or I who have vast experience in the issue?”
BERNAMA
