Shut-up Or Get-out

It was a “historic” moment when 10 Petaling Jaya city councillors walked out of the council’s monthly full board meeting after failing to get their opinions heard. 

Some councillors even had their microphones turned off by mayor Datuk Mohd Azizi Mohd Zain, who chairs the monthly meetings. 

Soon after, when voices were raised, the official live streaming of the meeting was cut off and security was called in to escort a few councillors out.

Once councillors started walking out, reporters were also told to leave the room and to delete all recordings on their cellphones.

The commotion erupted over the approval of the 1:8 plot ratio for a development at the former site of the iconic A&W restaurant in Lorong Sultan.

This morning, StarMetro had reported that the approval was for a single block of 20-storey office tower on the 0.4ha land. 

“I am the chairman and I no longer allow anymore discussions here. The decisions made at the One Stop Centre (OSC) committee meetings are final and it is only brought up in the full board meetings to inform councillors,” said Mohd Azizi after failing to control the room, which erupted in objections over the matter. 

Majority of the councillors had only wanted Mohd Azizi to bring this issue back to the OSC meeting for a review due to the many objections but that proposal was shot down.

“It is our right to have a voice in this matter as all final decisions should be done based on the majority approval of the full council, which consists of a mayor and 24 councillors,” said councillor Sean Oon who further moved to call for a vote to be carried out. 

However, this motion was also shot down by the mayor as he felt that a vote was not necessary over this matter.