“I don’t want to play the blame game, but the fact is that all the enforcement agencies, except the Land and Mines department are under federal jurisdiction,” the Pahang Menteri Besar told the New Straits Times in an exclusive interview.
Adnan maintained he played his role as the MB by contacting stakeholders to resolve the issue and at one point even shouted at transporters in a meeting and threatened stakeholders.
The problem, however, he admitted “was just so big.”
“There was never a time in the state executive council meeting that I did not discuss this issue. I even made it clear that bauxite would be a big problem for the state and this is true,” he told the NST.
Adnan also said he did not seek help from the Federal Government initially as he wanted to resolve the issue himself within the state government’s capacity.
“I didn’t see it pertinent for me to seek help from the federal government. The state government had tried to handle this issue on its own but it was a failure.”
He later said that if the state had control over the sector, like in Australia, Pahang would not be facing the present problem.