It is unprecedented and embarrassing for Putrajaya to have nine states reject a federal policy, said Umno’s Abdul Rahman Dahlan.
The states have spurned the prime minister’s decision to relax coronavirus containment measures with a conditional movement control order.
“Something’s very wrong with the government’s communication if nine states decide not to follow the federal government,” said Rahman.
“This should be done by the minister in charge of the economic cluster. Did he engage the states, especially when business premises/operations are under state government powers?” said the Umno man.
Rahman was commenting on the nine state governments refusal to allow all businesses to fully resume operations today as directed by the prime minister.
Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin announced the easing of restrictions on May 1.
Rahman, who headed the Economic Planning Unit in the previous Barisan Nasional administration, said Mohamed Azmin Ali as the senior minister in charge of the economic cluster had failed to engage the state governments before the CMCO was announced.
“To handle a crisis like this, he has to do a lot of engagements and video conferencing with everyone.
“But this looks like a big slap in his face f for failing to coordinate the reopening of businesses with the state governments.
“That’s a sign to him and the government not to take this lightly. It’s embarrassing and unprecedented,” Rahman said after attending a meeting of the Umno Supreme Council, on which he sits, at the Putra World Trade Centre.
He said Azmin should have known better.
“It’s a big step to ease the MCO.
“A simple thing like that. Mind you, Azmin was formerly the Selangor MB and he should know all this. This is serious – TMI