YOURSAY 'Since when did the chief secretary to the Umno government act so fast to fulfill a request by a Pakatan menteri besar?'

MB explains succession plan for MPS chief

Aries46: According to Selangor MB Khalid Ibrahim, "I only raised the matter with the appointment officer in SUK (state secretary's office)."

And according to chief secretary of the government (KSN) Ali Hamsa, "The termination of service was made by the Selangor state secretary through a letter dated Oct 15 which stated that Khalid had decided to replace (Selayang Municipal Council president) Zainal Abidin A'ala with another officer."

Who is this state secretary (SUK) and why did he lie to Ali that Khalid wanted to replace Zainal?

If Khalid is serious about exercising his right to appoint the municipal president and mayor, he should first ensure that his officers do not sabotage him like what happened in the appointment of the state secretary previously, and also in this case concerning Zainal Abidin.

Kelate: If I can read Khalid's "thinking", he will next probably "instruct" that Zainal Abidin to continue in his current position as his "authority" to appoint has been endorsed by the KSN. Moreover, he did not request for the transfer, either within 24 hours or a longer time period.

Also, in future, these positions should not be appointed without the approval of MB. I can only salute Khalid for his ability to do the ‘art of war' so well.

Exco member Ronnie Liu, et al, are just questioning the sudden 24-hour transfer of Zainal Abdin. There is no conflict but only diversions to confuse.

The Mask: Read the last two paragraphs of the Malaysiakini news report: "Now that he (chief secretary) has confirmed I have the power to appoint or dismiss the municipal president or city mayor, I am very happy with this confirmation.

"As has been understood by the state government, the power to appoint the mayor is in the hands of the menteri besar and the state government," Khalid added.

I suppose people with straight minds cannot see the entrapment set up by the MB and his colleagues. Well done, Khalid. You have now established the fact that you do have power to appoint your own people.

Thana55: Succession planning is a good practice in all successful companies. That Khalid is adopting this best practice is commendable. Coincidently, this issue has clarified who has the final say on these appointments.

Vijay47: It is quite revealing that the strongest condemnation here is from those who usually are the most avid defenders of Pakatan. And that is how it should be.

The present situation is not acceptable at all and much of the blame for this should fall on Khalid. If you were indeed proactive enough to "ensure continuity" one year ahead, why were you not astute enough to keep the other members of your government informed.

Secondly, why did you not come out as soon as the 'transfer blame' surfaced to explain the actual position? It took you at least three or four days to do so.

Thirdly, I find it incredible that Ronnie Liu and the others did not bother to discuss this when the most natural response would have been to ask, "Hey, what the heck is going on, is Barisan sabotaging us again?"

In our support of Pakatan, we expect something more honourable and honest than what Umno dishes out. Worse, the elections will be held pretty soon and you shoot yourselves in the foot at this juncture?

Anonymous #66797900: No one should blame Khalid. He did what he had to do - succession planning. By remaining silent, he has extracted a confession from the chief secretary that the power to appoint and remove rests with the state and MB.

If he had spoken earlier, the chief secretary would have been told to give a different reply to put the blame on the MB. They thought this was the smart way of blaming MB but got their pants burned, just as in the Batu Caves case.

Patience is a virtue and revenge is sweet. Congratulations to Khalid. You are turning out to be a master politician, smarter than Penang CM Lim Guan Eng even.

Guan Eng is lucky in some ways as capturing Penang is not Umno's priority. Selangor is.

Retnam: Since when did the chief secretary to the Umno government act so fast to fulfill a request by a Pakatan Rakyat menteri besar?

The timing was perfect this time for Ali Hamsa to put the blame on Khalid when actually it is Umno's desire to get rid of anyone seen as supportive of Pakatan. If they think the people are fools, they are even bigger fools.

A4MSIA: I am sure the MB did not request for a 24-hour transfer out of the office for the MPS president.

The main motive behind the transfer is obviously related to the Batu Caves condominium, but the MB's prior request presented Ali Hamsa the chance to divert responsibility to the MB.

Of course, this action is now deemed to indicate that the chief secretary has finally accepted that the state has ultimate say in the transfer of state officials.

Fair deal: As MPS president, Zainal Abidin should have resisted the BN councillors' attempt to approve the development plan in Batu Caves.

He did nothing even though he knows that it shouldn't have been approved. So for that failure to protect the interest of rakyat, he deserves to been sacked.

This is the type of accountability we should expect from our government, whether Pakatan or BN.

Anonymous_40c3: Khalid, you sly fox. Does it mean you can now keep the Petaling Jaya City Council (MPPJ) mayor?

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