PETALING JAYA: Former Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin has questioned the need for a new chief minister to be appointed in order to establish a unity government in the state.
Khairy said Umno could have just instructed Sulaiman Ali, who was chief minister until Thursday, to form a unity coalition.
Last Monday, Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi had hinted at the formation of a unity government, in line with the formation of the federal coalition.
“If that was what he desired, there was no need to change the chief minister,” Khairy said in an episode of his “Keluar Sekejap” joint podcast with Shahril Hamdan.
Khairy said Zahid was making a “huge concession” by seemingly giving his blessing to the change of Melaka’s chief minister, in which Melaka Umno chief Ab Rauf Yusoh replaced Sulaiman.
With the formation of a unity state government, Barisan Nasional’s coalition partner Pakatan Harapan could now nominate candidates for executive councillor posts , previously held by BN assemblymen, Khairy said.
“It is a huge concession because we don’t see PH offering to do the same in their states like Penang, Selangor and Negeri Sembilan,” he said.
Khairy took Zahid’s decision to form a unity government as a tactical move to negotiate executive councillor positions for BN members in states run by PH after the state assembly elections later this year.
“This could also be a confidence-building measure after the Registrar of Societies (RoS) exempted Umno,” he said referring to the registrar’s decision to clear Umno of any wrongdoing after the party had approved a no-contest motion for the top two posts in its elections.
The RoS comes under the purview of the home ministry, which is led by Saifuddin Nasution Ismail, who is PH secretary general.
“It’s a sort of quid pro quo. You clear us, I give you a few seats in Melaka,” he said, adding that he was not trying to relate the two but was using the RoS exemption as an example. - FMT
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.