Chow lashes out at reporters

sun2surf - Penang Local Government, Traffic Management and Environment Committee chairman Chow Kon Yeow today lashed out at reporters for not supporting the state government's decision to appoint seven municipal councillors from non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

"In the Penang Island Municipal Council (MPPP) we appointed four representatives from NGOs, short of one and you (reporters) are pushing this issue so much," told reporters when questioned on the issue after the swearing-in of 24 MPPP municipal councillors.

Three NGO representatives, short of two, were appointed to the the Seberang Perai Municipal Council (MPSP).

"This type of pressure is not giving us any support in our decision to open up the municipal councillors' post to those other than party members," he said.

"For the past 50 years, the councillors were only for Barisan Nasional (BN) candidates and there were no complaints and now, we have introduced a newer and better system and there are so many complaints," he added.

He then explained that even though he had received a lot of applications from various NGOs, he had to rush through the selection process to get the councillors sworn in as soon as possible.

"Anyway, the term for this batch of councillors is only for eight months. So we should look forward and see what happens," he added.more...

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