Azalina with Tongkat Ali

Azalina is seen here showing her Tongkat Ali.

I don't know why she needs Tongkat Ali but Tourism Ministry must be quite stressful for her as she finds hard to explain with rational reasons why she had to redirect funds for tourism projects to special committees under her ministry instead of channeling to the state government controlled by Pakatan Rakyat.

Newly-appointed Tourism Minister Azalina Othman Said refuted two Pakatan Rakyat chief ministers’ claims that her ministry was punishing tourists by terminating its memoranda of understanding (MoUs) with the states.

Azalina said the accusations by Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng and Selangor Menteri Besar Khalid Ibrahim were unfair.

"This ministry will continue the projects as promised earlier. We do not make changes unnecessarily."

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 prerogative.

"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.”

On why her ministry is channeling the funds to a different committee and not the state Tourism Action Councils (TAC) like other BN-held states, Azalina said it was a “technical” matter.

"But if they (opposition) decide to join Barisan Nasional, it would be much better,” she said.

More of her news here

So, "this has happened for the past few years with Kelantan and Trengganu"...it's about prerogative and it's technical in nature. You understand what it means? Monies were channeled to sub-committees and that's what had happened to the oil royalties which was to be paid to the state government of Terengganu but instead channeled to a sub-committee managed by Umno corruptors by renaming it as Wang Ehsan and masukan ke sungei wang sendirian berhad. You could by now guess rightly why our Tuanku Sultan Terengganu refused to accept Idris Jusoh as MB of Terengganu.

It's just the only way to ensure that no traces of corruption can be unearthed and no indictments. They remain clean and the coffers remain clean. In the words of Nazri Aziz, since no one is indicted for corruption, therefore it is assumed that all BN politicians and ministers are clean. Ya, it is true and truly - Bersih, Cekap dan Amanah! Sapu bersih, sungguh cekap dan pasti lah amanah.