Article on Khusrin

Just putting it up for the record..

The Khusrin affair — Another Perak?

Is the Perak comparison overdramatic?

Let’s take a step back and examine the institution that Datuk Mohd Khusrin Munawi has been selected to lead in Selangor.

The civil service exists to provide continuity between governments.

While institutions like an independent judiciary, an empowered legislature and a free media (none of which seem to exist in Malaysia) are designed to provide checks and balances to the executive, the noble role of the civil service is to implement all legal policies of the government of the day — not to challenge it, frustrate it, or act as a political force of their own in any way.

Unfortunately, in Selangor, there have been numerous complaints of civil servants — especially at the local government level — that have quietly bottlenecked, failed to implement or actively blocked policies by the new state government.

While some civil servants have demonstrated impeccable professionalism and dedication to duty, others appear to be in denial of what they feel is a one-term government and seek to curry favour with the political coalition whose return to power they feel is only a matter of time.

Khusrin ranked eighth out of eight

Against such a backdrop, let’s revisit what happened. As the outgoing state chief secretary retired, a commission was appointed by the state government to interview potential replacements.

It must be noted that the current law regarding the appointment of the state secretary is vague, saying that the decision should be done by “the relevant public services commission.”

Eventually, eight individuals were interviewed by the state-appointed commission, and three were short-listed. It is understood that Datuk Khusrin was ranked last of these eight candidates.

As these names were being presented to the Sultan of Selangor, the federal government pre-emptively announced that Datuk Khusrin had been picked as the new Chief Secretary of Selangor. The elected chief executive of the Selangor government was at no point consulted regarding this appointment.

Appointing a man known to have strained relations with the government of the day and deemed by the same government to be least suitable amongst qualified candidates is nothing less than an act of sabotage.

Sabotage and destabilisation?

How tragic that the federal government would knowingly spark such a crisis, blatantly ignoring the negative impact on the people of Selangor.

Is this a precursor to further attempts to create a conflict that will destabilise the Selangor state government and render it inoperable? Would the ruling party sink to such levels as to knowingly destabilise the state government in some attempt to make their political opponents look bad?

I suppose we need only look to our neighbours to the north for an answer.

As the Perak constitutional crisis waged on, the State Secretary of Perak had a pivotal role to play. His actions and true allegiances became plain for all to see when he played a partisan role and at one point had then mentri besar Datuk Seri Nizar Jamaluddin unceremoniously thrown out of the state secretariat.

Selangor is clearly not at the stage Perak was in early 2009, but in creating a conflict within the institutions of government, we can see the same hand brewing the same recipe for disaster.

Federal strong-arm tactics

Again, is this interpretation over dramatic?

Let us start by asking the simple question: Why Khusrin?

There must be a good working relationship between the government of the day and the civil service. As the government is democratically elected, it must surely be allowed as the people’s representatives and custodian of authority to have a say in how the civil service is led and run. How else would they ensure that the policies that they have been voted in to enact will be implemented professionally?

As Khalid himself rightly pointed out, could we expect the federal government to function properly if an individual known to be at odds with the prime minister and his government was appointed as Chief Secretary of the federal government?

I think many observers will agree that Khalid has been extremely accommodating of the civil service, and vigorously upheld the principle that politics should not have an undue influence on the civil service.

Such a track record suggests that of the candidates available, surely the federal and state governments can — if they so wish — be reasonable and agree to a compromise candidate.

The three candidates chosen by the state government are all fully qualified members of the civil service who meet every criteria necessary for the position of chief secretary.

What possible reason could there be for the federal government to refuse to consider even one of these candidates, to break this impasse and ensure the smooth running of the government?

Sadly, it is the tragedy of politics that sometimes the most obvious, appropriate solutions seem to be the ones most scarcely found to be practised in reality.

Solutions

If the federal government persists most illogically and without any clear reasoning to insist on a candidate that seems to be selected on the basis of political inclinations, we can only hope that an alternative solution can be found.

As the state government now looks to the state assembly for such a solution, we hope that any new law or amendment passed will reflect a spirit of co-operation and emphasis on the welfare of the people, rather than narrow political interests.

courtesy of Jelas.info