update: Not surprisingly the rakyat has responded in a multitude of ideas & suggestion in as much as complaint against Azalina’s highhandedness on the cancellation of the tourism MoU’s. See here .

When new Tourism Minister Azlina last week announced that the tourism MoU’s signed with the 4 new Pakatan Rakyat (PR) states are to be terminated there was an avalanche of criticism from all quarters. Loudest on the matter was of course the PR led state governments’ leaders and no shortage of public opinion was drummed up in the days following the announcement.

Yesterday Azalina "cleared the air" on the issue and stated that the cancellation of the MoU’s would not discriminate against any state, tourism organisation and also the rakyat themselves. When I said she "cleared the air" what I specific meant is that reading between the lines of her statement we are presented with a few viewpoints on how things should work in Azalina’s book.

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From this point forward are all conjecture(s) on the writers part and cannot be claimed to be fact in absence of cold hard proof!

Retention of tourism funds and its various money flows in the hands of BN.

Reason numero uno behind Azalina’s decision in my opinion is that the tourism allocation and funds that are normally granted to the Tourism Action Councils (TAC) – nominally lead by the state exco members – must remain in the hands of BN . Basically now that PR has come into power in the 4 new states, BN members will no more be able to sit on the TAC councils. Hence if things were to remain as they were then the PR state exco’s would have had access to the monies and thus have the capability to carry out tourism activities or events on their own. This of course is a big no no and the result is her decision to cancel the MoU’s with the states. Nowhere more clear is the point made than by her own self:

On whether the Pakatan state governments will have access to the funds, Azalina said: "The difference is who signs the cheque – they sign the cheques or we sign the cheques?
"This is the federal government, so we sign the cheques. What’s the big deal?”

Continuation of the infamous "Satu Lagi Project Kerajaan BN" propaganda in terms of the tourism activities.

Tied hand in hand with the first reason above is the mentality of continuing the not so subtle propaganda of the "Satu Lagi Project Kerajaan BN" . If the Tourism Ministry can control and direct the TAC in the PR held states then they can conduct all the tourism activities and events under the all encompassing umbrella of brand BN . This can later on be used as political mileage come the next general elections. Just recall the various highlights that tourism events in Kelantan were given in the local MSM – ultimately affording BN all the kudos. My point is somewhat justified in lieu of the following statement:

Tourism Ministry secretary-general Dr Victor Wee explained that there were two issues in the matter.
Firstly, TACs in the opposition states will no longer be headed by the state excos for tourism and will instead be led by him or a person appointed by the minister, he said.
"And second, is the way the funds will be channeled. The funds will no longer go through the states but through a federal mechanism. Because of the nature of the new political scenario, the MOUs with the states will be cancelled.

Staying true to her "Politics is a marriage of convenience" agenda.

Just last week Azalina was quoted to have said that politics is a marriage of convenience . Her point is well justified by her own actions with her high handedness of cancelling the tourism MoU’s in the Pakatan held states. The priorities in her opinion is most definitely not for the betterment of the tourism industry, the economy and that of the rakyat directly affected. Rather most likely first and foremost priority is BN itself and ensuring that it’s powerbase is protected . Again the line of thought here is that as long as BN can dole out the proverbial crumbs , matters will have to go through them for their approval and blessing.

On the way the funds are channeled – instead of money going to the Pakatan state governments and it will now go to ministry-controlled committees – the minister said that it was the federal government’s perogative.
"It applies to all the states which is being led by opposition government. This has happened for the past few years with Kelantan and we’ve never discriminated as far as tourism projects are concerned. We’ve been very fair.”

Thus the actions of Azalina in her capacity as the new Tourism Minister can be viewed either way. Justifying her point of view is her statement that tourism activities and events will continue to go on in the Pakatan governed states – only it’ll be under the purview of the federal government. But anyone who can connect the dots will see the decision for what it truly is – a desperate attempt at grasping for the reins of power to be held as firmly as possible in the hands of BN, with any means necessary.

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