Ipoh City's remaining 12 BN councillors expected to quit soon - NST

April 24, 2008 By : Brenda Lim (brendalim@nst.com.my)

The remaining 12 councillors in the Ipoh City Council are expected to send in their resignation letters in the near future. These councillors, from Umno, MIC and PPP, attended the first full board meeting of the council to be held since the March 8 general election, barely making the quorum.

To hold the meeting, at least half of the 24 councillors, which includes the mayor, have to be present.The council’s club president, Datuk Mohd Raduan Mohd Kassim, who attended the meeting, announced that the remaining councillors would be quitting their post.

The other 11 councillors are from MCA and Gerakan. Those from MCA have tendered their resignations while those from Gerakan are also believed to have resigned."Some will ask us why we are still attending the meeting. We feel we should fulfill our obligations and not burden others. We don't want to run away without completing our duties," said Mohd Raduan told reporters after the meeting,

Datuk Bandar Ipoh Datuk Mohamd Rafiai Mokhtar said the mass resignations would not affect the core business of the council, as services such as rubbish collection, would still continue.

Development plans would continue to be implemented as the council's annual budget was already approved, he said, adding that sub-committee meetings would go on as long as the resignation letters had yet to take effect.However, he said the council would not be able to approve new policies, pending new appointments by the state government.

The councillors said they had not received any official instruction from the state Barisan Nasional leadership and were acting on their own accord.