By Suganthi Suparmaniam 2008/04/03
KUALA LUMPUR: The Tourism Ministry is terminating its memorandum of understanding on tourism with opposition-led states with immediate effect. Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Azalina Othman said the respective states' Tourism Action Councils will have "our own people who will communicate directly with the ministry."We will work together to develop tourism in any particular state," she said after chairing a meeting with industry players yesterday.However, she gave an assurance that there would not be a total boycott on tourism in these states.Azalina said that all the funds for tourism in these states would be directly channelled into the accounts of the state Tourism Action Councils.Ministry secretary-general Datuk Dr Victor Wee said the chairmen of the councils would be the executive councillors for tourism in each state."But with these five states, the tourism excos will no longer chair the council meetings. The funds which were channelled to the state financial officer will now be channelled through federal funds."Wee said the budget of RM1 million for each state would remain the same but further allocation will depend on their activities.He was confident that the system would work and cited Kelantan as one of the states where the system had proven to be a success."It should work. In Kelantan, the state Tourism Action Council is doing a good job and the state government is also appreciative of its role, although none of the state excos are involved in the running of the council." Azalina said that some of the tourism events in the states, like the Penang World Music Festival and the Langkawi Water Festival would go on as planned while others would be revised.She said industry players were concerned with recent political developments and added that as long as there were no negative policies and "discriminations" by the state governments, they would not complain."But if the state governments want to play politics and do not see the importance of tourism as an important sector of growth, then I hope the industry players will react to this and communicate directly with the federal government." Azalina said the federal government would step in if the state governments formulate policies that would affect tourism programmes.Asked about the PKR-DAP-Pas' formation of Pakatan Rakyat, the minister said it would "definitely fail"."For me, it's a marriage of convenience. It can go on for a month or a year, I don't know. But it will collapse," she said.
KUALA LUMPUR: The Tourism Ministry is terminating its memorandum of understanding on tourism with opposition-led states with immediate effect. Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Azalina Othman said the respective states' Tourism Action Councils will have "our own people who will communicate directly with the ministry."We will work together to develop tourism in any particular state," she said after chairing a meeting with industry players yesterday.However, she gave an assurance that there would not be a total boycott on tourism in these states.Azalina said that all the funds for tourism in these states would be directly channelled into the accounts of the state Tourism Action Councils.Ministry secretary-general Datuk Dr Victor Wee said the chairmen of the councils would be the executive councillors for tourism in each state."But with these five states, the tourism excos will no longer chair the council meetings. The funds which were channelled to the state financial officer will now be channelled through federal funds."Wee said the budget of RM1 million for each state would remain the same but further allocation will depend on their activities.He was confident that the system would work and cited Kelantan as one of the states where the system had proven to be a success."It should work. In Kelantan, the state Tourism Action Council is doing a good job and the state government is also appreciative of its role, although none of the state excos are involved in the running of the council." Azalina said that some of the tourism events in the states, like the Penang World Music Festival and the Langkawi Water Festival would go on as planned while others would be revised.She said industry players were concerned with recent political developments and added that as long as there were no negative policies and "discriminations" by the state governments, they would not complain."But if the state governments want to play politics and do not see the importance of tourism as an important sector of growth, then I hope the industry players will react to this and communicate directly with the federal government." Azalina said the federal government would step in if the state governments formulate policies that would affect tourism programmes.Asked about the PKR-DAP-Pas' formation of Pakatan Rakyat, the minister said it would "definitely fail"."For me, it's a marriage of convenience. It can go on for a month or a year, I don't know. But it will collapse," she said.
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