PKR has pinpointed the blame on Umno over the Selangor state secretary quagmire, saying that they are the root cause of the erosion in royal powers.

They reminded that it was the BN government led by Dr Mahathir Mohamad at that time, which had moved to strip the royals of their legal immunity back in 1993.

“PKR is grateful to the Sultan of Selangor for referring the appointment of the state secretary back to the Menteri Besar to renegotiate with the Public Services Commission.

NONE “His Highness informed us that he no longer has the power to accept nor reject the appointment of the state secretary when the ruling government stripped the powers of royalty during the 1993 constitutional crisis,” said the party’s information chief Muhammad Nur Manuty ( left ).

The 1993 constitutional amendment saw the deletion of Article 52(6) from the Selangor state constitution, which states that in the event of there being no service commission having jurisdiction in respect of any appointment of any officers mentioned in Clause (1) such appointment may be made by His Highness acting in his discretion.

Such powers have since been centralised back to the federal government.

In the meantime, the party also lauded the efforts to reinstate the royal powers to the sultan over the appointment of the top three state government officers.

“PKR is confident that this move to return the power to appoint to the MB and the sultan is a concrete step to reinstall the esteem of the constitutional monarchy institution as outlined in the Pakatan Rakyat’s policies,” he said during a press conference at the party headquarters this morning.

‘Umno will do just about anything to retain power’

Muhammad Nur said that the federal government’s attempt to appoint Mohammed Khusrin Munawi as the Selangor state secretary is similar to the “takeover” of the Perak state government in 2008.

“This crisis should also show that the Umno will do anything including sacrificing the sanctity of the law and constitution merely to gain political power,” he said.

“The fact remains that Umno has lost faith in democracy, hence the slogans such as ‘1Malaysia’, ‘ketuanan Melayu’, ‘Kedaulatan Raja-raja’ and so on.

“Worse, Umno is ready to defile and use any national institutions to retain their power and to protect their culture of corruption and betrayal of the country and its people all these years,” he said.