PUTRAJAYA: Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said Barisan Nasional’s (BN) victory in the Cameron Highlands parliamentary by-election on Saturday was not something shocking as the constituency had been a stronghold of theirs for a long time.
Dr Mahathir, who is also Pakatan Harapan (PH) chairman, said rural areas like Cameron Highlands were normally BN’s forts other than the racial issues played up by the opposition during the by-election.
‘’This is something unfortunate but it is the decision of the people and we accept. We conducted a good by-election, no hanky panky.
‘’The decision is based on the people,’’ he said when met after attending a closed door briefing with the leaders of statutory bodies in conjunction with the Federal Statutory Bodies’ Highest Management Executives Programme, here today.
On Saturday, BN retained its victory in the Cameron Highlands Parliamentary by-elections through its candidate, Ramli Mohd Noor who garnered 12,038 votes. He beat the PH candidate, M. Manogaran (8,800 votes) and two independents, Sallehudin Ab Talib (314 votes) and Wong Seng Yee (276 votes).
On the closed door meeting, the prime minister said he had explained to the statutory bodies that they were ‘small governments’ and must be responsible in managing their organisations like the government.
The programme, which was held for the first time, was attended by 260 participants comprising chief executive directors, general managers, director-generals and senior managements from 132 federal statutory bodies throughout the country.
The Ministry of Finance, in a statement in conjunction with the programme, said among the emphasis implemented by the government today was for the federal statutory bodies to review their business models to be in line with the functions and mandates drawn up.
‘’They are also required to reevaluate their subsidiary companies to ensure they do not deviate from the mandates of the federal statutory bodies themselves,’’ he said.
The Ministry of Finance said it had been asked to provide a new guideline on the governance of the board of directors of the federal statutory bodies encompassing the role to be played by the chairmen, board members and the highest managements. — Bernama
