PAKATAN Harapan Kelantan has formed a special task force comprising 10 ministerial portfolios to bring problems faced in the east coast state directly to the cabinet, said Amanah Kelantan chairman Wan Rahim Wan Abdullah.

Topping the goals of the task force, chaired by Senator Husam Musa, is to address the high cost of living.

“PH Kelantan is not so focused on party issues, as we are looking into addressing problems faced by the people, especially the cost of living,” Wan Rahim told The Malaysian Insight.

“These 10 portfolios will be placed under PH Kelantan. We will act as mediators to quicken the communication and execution between ministries and agencies to help the public,” said Wan Rahim, who also chairs the portfolio of rural development, agriculture and primary industries.

A task force has also been formed at the parliamentary level to ensure that federal aid programmes reach the intended communities, he said.

One year time frame

Despite taking over the federal government from Barisan Nasional in the 14th general election, PH failed to wrest control of Kelantan, Terengganu and Pahang.

Islamist party PAS retained Kelantan, which has 14 parliamentary seat and 45 state constituencies, and has been in power there for almost three decades.

Wan Rahim admitted that PH was disorganised in the first nine months of coming into power but believed that with the formation of the task force, the coalition be able to meet the people’s needs.

“We will benefit as we want people to see that as the federal government, we don’t have any political interest and we just want to unite the people.”

The task force has set a time frame of one year from GE14 for all the programmes to be finalised and rolled out.

“We have two more months to complete the planning and to roll out the PH machinery.”

Earlier this month, Economic Affairs Minister Mohamed Azmin Ali assured Kelantan folk that Putrajaya would not leave the state out in the country’s development. – March 13, 2019.