BARRING ENTRY TO CM'S OFFICE A NORMAL ADMIN PROCEDURE - PENANG CM`S OFFICE

PENANG (Malaysia), Feb 20 (Bernama) -- The Penang Chief Minister's (CM)
Office Saturday clarified that its instruction barring visitors from entering
the Chief Minister's office on the 28th floor of the Komtar building here was a
normal administrative procedure.

The Penang Chief Minister's private secretary Farida Hani M. Yacob said the
instruction was not meant to bar visitors to the CM's office but to ensure
people did not simply walk in and out as they liked.

"If a visitor wants to meet a certain officer, for example me, I can bring
the person to the CM's office area. It is not a problem.

"Sometimes visitors come without making an appointment. We do not know their
reason for coming and cannot simply allow people to enter the CM's office to
suit their own convenience," she told reporters here Saturday.

She added that the 28th floor and several other floors at the Komtar
building were gazetted as restricted zones whereby members of the public must
obtain special passes from the building's security personnel on the third floor
in order to get to them.

Farida Hani was responding to complaints from Umno Youth Information
Chief Reezal Merican Naina Merican that restrictions imposed by the CM's
office was making it difficult for the public to bring up their problems to the
attention of the Chief Minister.

-- BERNAMA