Fadhli: Will Loke accept if excos in other states removed by ruler?

 

PAS information chief Ahmad Fadhli Shaari has questioned whether DAP secretary-general Anthony Loke would accept it if exco members in other states were removed from office by the head of state, without executive approval.

This is after Negeri Sembilan set a precedent - which Putrajaya is not challenging - that the ruler can revoke the appointments of exco members without the menteri besar's advice.

Each state constitution has clauses stating that exco members serve at the pleasure of either the monarch or, for states without rulers, the governor.

In a statement today, Fadhli (above) said the interpretation of this rule must be consistent, and not only be read in the context of Negeri Sembilan or when DAP dislikes the state government.

"If members of the state administration lose their positions due to assent being withdrawn, the question is: What will be your (Loke) position if one day this happens to excos in state governments controlled by your party (DAP)," he said, warning that this situation could happen in the future.

In Negeri Sembilan, all state exco members except the menteri besar had their appointments revoked for disloyalty, after they issued a statement backing the state's disputed territorial chieftains' proclamation removing Tuanku Muhriz Tuanku Munawir as Yang di-Pertuan Besar.

The revocation has been gazetted, but the chieftains are contesting it.

Umno - which heads the state government - had signalled that it will accede to the removal, and made efforts to work out a solution with Tuanku Muhriz.

'Not about Umno, PAS'

Fadhli's salvo at Loke was in response to the DAP secretary-general saying that the Negeri Sembilan crisis could derail the Umno-PAS Malay unity agenda.

The PAS information chief disagreed with that assessment, saying that people will see that the issue goes beyond Umno and PAS.

Instead, he said that people may judge how Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and other federal powers handled the crisis.

Anwar and the Attorney-General's Chambers have issued statements which benefited Tuanku Muhriz, including when the AGC rejected the state government's attempt to remove the state secretary so they could gazette the appointment of rival claimant to the throne Tunku Nadzaruddin Tuanku Ja'afar as ruler. - Mkini