The Malaysian Insider understands that state government officials are already anticipating defeat in its attempt to amend the constitution to return powers to appoint state senior civil servants following the impasse over Datuk Mohd Khusrin Munawi’s appointment as the new state secretary.
“We anticipate that the amendments will not get through because Umno or BN (Barisan Nasional) wants to usurp the power of the state,” a source told The Malaysian Insider.
“But, we want to go through with it anyway... so people will know that Umno is not only undermining the powers of the Sultan but also undermining the powers of the state,” he added.
The decision was reached at Selangor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim’s internal briefing with the state’s PR MPs, assemblymen and top coalition leaders yesterday.
PR, which holds 35 seats in the 56-seat assembly, is three seats shy of a two-thirds majority necessary to amend the constitution.
The source said the state assembly sitting was also aimed at refuting Umno’s accusations of PR being treasonous.
“The most important battle is the battle for the people,” said the source who had attended the briefing.
“If we can convince the people and show BN up on this issue, we can justify whatever we want to do after that,” he added.
Khalid accused Umno on Sunday of committing treason in 1993 when then-Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad limited the powers of the monarchy.
The MB had further challenged Selangor Umno to support the amendments to the state constitution to prove its claims of upholding the royal institution.
Earlier, Selangor Umno deputy chairman Datuk Noh Omar had hinted at rejecting the amendments.
Yesterday, the source said Selangor would look into resolving Khusrin’s contentious appointment after the state assembly sitting.
“We want to handle the issue of treason first. That is step one,” said the source.
“We don’t try to kill too many birds with one stone, or we will end up missing all the birds. So, we take it one at a time,” he added.
He also said constitutional lawyer Prof Dr Abdul Aziz Bari had advised the Selangor government against amending the constitution with retrospective effect.
“It is so you are not seen as amending the law to suit your own personal or political requirement,” said the source.
He added that Selangor was mulling the option of passing a law to define the Public Service Commission (PSC) as the state service commission.
“This only needs a simple majority,” he said.
Putrajaya has insisted that the term “appropriate services commission” enshrined under section 52(1) of the Selangor constitution referred to the federal PSC, and not the Selangor State Service Commission.
Selangor has been locked in a tussle with Putrajaya since Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Mohd Sidek Hassan named Khusrin to the state’s top civil officer post on December 27.
The state has insisted that it can choose its own state secretary and has rejected the former Selangor Islamic Religious Department (Jais) director.
Yesterday, the source also said the amendments to section 52(1) of the Selangor constitution would mirror the original version before the 1993 amendments.
“It will be back to what it was in 1993 with some slight amendments,” he said.
“In the spirit of pre-1993, the Sultan shall appoint based on recommendation from the Public Service Commission the state secretary, the state legal adviser and the state financial officer provided, before appointing, he refers to the mentri besar for advice. Something like that,” said the source, adding that he was reading out the rough words of the pre-1993 clause. - Malaysian Insider
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.