Amid accusations that he had “sold out” to Umno, the Sultan of Selangor lambasted the Pakatan Rakyat state government for “manipulating” his speeches and politicising the appointment of Prime Minister Najib Razak’s appointee Khusrin Munawi as the state secretary.
"I do not side any group or political party," Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah said in a rare speech delivered during the oath-taking ceremony at his Palace in Shah Alam.
"I wish to emphasise that the appointment of the Selangor State Secretary was made in accordance with regulations and procedures stipulated by the Selangor State Constitution and the Federal Constitution."
Yet despite the Ruler’s assurances that he was neutral, Malaysians were left wondering why he opted to support the federal government’s appointment of Khusrin but ignored the objections of his own state government.
Flawed democracy
Indeed, a constitutional crisis is boiling up in Selangor, almost a year after a similar occurrence took place in Perak. Speculation is rife that Najib plans to regain control of Selangor, the country’s richest state, by putting in his stalwarts at key places of administrative influence.
Political watchers have been warning for months now the huge jump in the number of Rela officers transferred into the state. These are believed to be ‘phantom voters’ planted by the BN, and in the event that Pakatan still wins more votes, their role would be to stir unrest giving the federal government the excuse of calling for emergency rule and indirectly regaining control over Selangor.
Coincidentally, the influential Economist magazine widely read by the international business and diplomatic community downgraded Malaysia to 71st placing, down from 68 in its bellwether democracy index. It described Malaysia as a "flawed democracy" and pointed to a "gradual erosion of civil liberties and political culture in the past year."
"Nowhere for Najib to hide his face now. He orchestrated the Perak power grab and refused to take the blame for the 81 per cent plunge in FDI in 2009. Now the cat is out of the bag, what has he got to say? No point plugging 1Malaysia and pretending that it is meant to unify when he ignores democracy and civil liberties in Perak and now again in Selangor. There is now statistical proof that 1 Malaysia is in actual fact anti-democracy," Taiping MP Nga Kor Ming told Malaysia Chronicle.
Khalid pledges to fight on
Amid such concerns, Khalid and his team have pledged to oust Khusrin, and although they attended his oath-taking this morning, it was “under protest” and they are sticking to their guns.
“It does not mean that our attendance indicates we accept the Public Service Commission's arbitary action against the state administration. We hold firm that the appointment of the state secretary is not final and needs to be tackled appropriately,” Khalid had said in a statement.
"We have also informed the Sultan that the state administration will be holding the state legislative assembly soon to amend the Selangor state constitution to return power to the Sultan and Mentri Besar, pertaining to the appointment of the State Secretary, financial officer and legal adviser.”
All eyes are now on whether the Palace would object to such a motion as it obviously would benefit the Sultan. If the Sultan rejects the Pakatan move, it would only confirm already widespread views that he is biased towards Umno. There is also much speculation as to why and whether incentives were offered by Najib.
Meanwhile, the Sultan expressed hope that Khusrin could discharge his responsibilities efficiently and called on all government officers in the state to give their close cooperation. He also told Khusrin to implement the policies of the government-of-the day according to current rules and regulations.
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment