GOMBAK: Selangor PAS commissioner Hasan Mohamed Ali today exhorted Barisan Nasional to help the state government give back power to the Sultan.
BN assemblyman should support the constitutional amendment that the Pakatan Rakyat government will propose on Jan 24, he said at a press conference here.
The amendment, if passed, will restore to the Sultan and the state administration the power to appoint state executives.
Hasan’s call is an obvious challenge to Umno, which, since losing ground in the 2008 general election, has been trying to portray itself as the champion of the Malay rulers’ dignity.
The proposal to amend the state constitution comes amidst a controversy over the recent appointment of Mohammed Khusrin Munawi as state secretary. The state government says the Chief Secretary to the Government and palace officials ignored its rejection of Khusrin as a candidate. Pakatan sees Khusrin as an Umno mole.
Hasan said the amendment proposal was an opportunity for the BN assemblymen to prove that they longer harboured their “1993 mentality”.
He was referring to the year in which Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s administration took away much of the Malay rulers’ powers through constitutional amendments.
Hasan said the current spat over Khusrin’s appointment was the result of a communication breakdown between the palace, the state government and the civil service.
He agreed with Khusrin supporters that the Public Services Commission (SPA) had the legal prerogative to make the appointment, but noted that this time it defied 
convention in not consulting the state government.
“Though it is up to the SPA to appoint its officers,” he said, “it is a convention to consult the state leadership. I know this well as I was in the civil service before.”
He said the state submitted three names to the palace for consideration and Khusrin’s was not one of them.
Before his current appointment, Khusrin was director of Jais, the Malay acronym for the Selangor Islamic Affairs Department. In that capacity, he made some decisions that seemed to accord with Umno positions and displeased the Pakatan government.
Hasan, who is the state executive councillor in charge of religious matters, said he agreed with Khusrin on policy matters when the latter was in Jais.
“However, we had differing views in terms of enforcement. I believe that we must take into consideration the racial composition and the political realities around us before acting on something.”
A reporter asked Hasan to comment on Shah Alam MP Khalid Samad’s recent statement that Pakatan should accept Khusrin to foil a BN plot to create a rift between the palace and the state government.
Khalid is a PAS member.
“It was his personal opinion and it does not reflect PAS Selangor’s stand,” said Hasan. - FMT
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.