In what appears to be a clear snub for PKR president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, an English daily today quotes a Selangor palace source as saying the sultan does not want the new menteri besar to be a “remote-controlled” person.
According to The Star the source said the palace requirement for the office holder to be one who has the interest of the rakyat and serves the people, not one under the control of someone else.
“The MB must not only be chosen by the majority of the state assembly, but must be able to put the interest of the rakyat first and can run the state. The Selangor ruler wants someone who can take care of the needs of the people and develop the state to the highest level,” the source is quoted as saying.
The Sultan of Selangor is behaving as though he is absolute ruler of the state, rather than a constitutional head, bound by the democratic institutions of Malaysia. Time to wake up!
Nothing prevents him from being, totally privately, a fervent supporter of UMNO. Equallly nothing allows him to dsplay this preference in public as he is continuing to do in the matter of appointing a new Mentri Besar
With a lack of courtesy unusual and inappropriate in a titual ruler he insults the Pakatan nominee Dr.Wan Azizah by alleging she is under “the control of someone else” – a clear reference to her husband currently threatened with imprisonment by the machinations of the UMNO, which the Sultan so clearly favours.
Does he forget that the previous MB was in the pocket of the UMNO, his own “remote controller”? The objective of the UMNO controlled sultan is becoming clear. Find a man who can be appointed MB and then seduced into supporting UMNO.