MAL AYSI A In Selangor, no value to PAS’s pledge or promise

COMMENTARY BY THE MALAYSIAN INSIDER

Published: 25 August 2014

PAS secretary-general Datuk Mustafa Ali

(second right) speaks during a press

conference at the party's headquarters in

Kuala Lumpur today. PAS today said it

would leave it to the sultan of Selangor to

decide on the new menteri besar. – The

Malaysian Insider pic by Najjua Zulkefli,

August 25, 2014.

After taking nearly

three weeks to decide

who it supports as the

Selangor menteri

besar, PAS today did a

volte-face and said it

would leave it to the

state ruler to decide

who should get the

post.

http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/in-selangor-no-value-to-pass-pledge-or-promise

What

it boils

down

to is

this:

that PAS cannot be trusted to

keep its word, even if takes

almost a month to come to a

decision.

And beyond that, PAS has

taken upon itself to assign

powers to the sultan of

Selangor that the Selangor

constitution does not even give

him – the power to decide who

can be menteri besar.

The last we heard, the state ruler is a constitutional monarch and is guided by the law and the conventions set since

Merdeka in 1957.

The convention is simple: the

leader of a coalition of parties

will recommend and endorse

the lawmaker who has the

confidence of the majority of

assemblymen in the state

legislature.

http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/in-selangor-no-value-to-pass-pledge-or-promise

Only since 2008 has that

convention been broken: in

Terengganu, Perlis and then

Perak. Two cases involved

Barisan Nasional (BN)

lawmakers and the third saw a

change of government in

Perak.

And today, PAS decided that it

can ignore the convention and

leave it to the state ruler to

decide who should be the

menteri besar. Not the

coalition, and not the people.

"The special central committee

meeting on August 25 agreed

to leave it to the wisdom of the

sultan of Selangor to

determine the Selangor

menteri besar position," said

PAS secretary-general Datuk

Mustafa Ali after attending a

meeting at the PAS

headquarters in Kuala Lumpur

today.

"We are making an open

statement. When we say that

we will leave it to the sultan, it

means the sultan can choose,"

he said.

"We are not saying anything

specific... You interpret it

yourself."

With that, 13 PAS lawmakers

in Selangor will not sign

statutory declarations in

http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/in-selangor-no-value-to-pass-pledge-or-promise

support of Datuk Seri Dr Wan

Azizah Wan Ismail, nor will

the Islamist party endorse the

PKR president for the job.

Not that it matters. Dr Wan

Azizah has the support of 30

lawmakers in the 56-seat state

legislature. She does not need

the support of the 13

lawmakers.

But what does it tell you about

PAS apart from the fact that it

cannot be trusted?

It does not understand the

rules of coalition politics and,

worse, it is prepared to go

beyond the law to get its way.

Did it consider coalition

politics when both DAP and

PKR agreed to let Datuk Seri

Nizar Jamaluddin be Perak

Menteri Besar in 2008 despite

not having a majority of the

seats?

Perhaps this just confirms

PAS's true colours. The

Islamist party that spoke of a

welfare state before the

general elections now talks

about the Islamic criminal law

hudud and punishments

rather than charity and

benevolence.

http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/in-selangor-no-value-to-pass-pledge-or-promise

Today's decision by PAS has

shown just how empty its “PAS

for all” slogan really is. PAS is

not for all. It is only for itself.

– August 25, 2014.

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