Selangor Menteri Besar Abdul Khalid Ibrahim said today that it is not a norm for the Sultan of Selangor, Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah, to be invited for state-level Independence Day celebrations.

NONE "Such an invitation is not in the programme. This is how we do it every year, that's all," he said in response to a local daily's report that the sultan had been left out of last night's Independence Day celebrations at Dataran Kemerdekaan in Shah Alam.

He was speaking to reporters after Friday prayers in conjunction with Independence Day.

Meanwhile, the Sultan of Selangor's confidential secretary, Mohamad Munir Bani, said it was the custom of the previous state government to invite the sultan for such celebrations.

"The invitation was a formality and it was up the sultan to accept or otherwise," Munir said.

Selangor Umno Information chief Abdul Shukor Idrus questioned the Selangor government's invitation to PKR leader Anwar Ibrahim, who is also Selangor's economic adviser, as the main guest at the event.

The action was seen as improper as the post of Selangor economic adviser was merely a political post created by the state administration and was not in the state constitution.

Shukor said: "Is the state government using the celebration funded by the state government for its political interest? If it is true, it is an irresponsible act, apart from insulting the institution of the Selangor sultanate."

In Kota Baru, Malay rights group Perkasa president Ibrahim Ali said that certain parties were alleging that a small group from the opposition coalition was trying to deny the role of the royalty in the name of democracy.

- Bernama