Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Constitutional amendments: Sitting on Jan 24

The Selangor legislative assembly will sit on Jan 24 with the main agenda being the tabling of an enactment to amend the state constitution. In a statement, speaker Teng Chang Khim said he has instructed the assembly secretary to dispatch letters to all state assemblypersons informing them of the sitting.Teng said the sitting was called after he was satisfied with Menteri Besar Abdul Khalid Ibrahim's explanation that the sitting must be held because of public interest.
The Selangor government is seeking to amend the state constitution to provide more clout to the sultan and the state government in the choice of state secretary.

The amendments were proposed following the federal government's appointment of Mohammed Khusrin Munawi as the state secretary. Khusrin was appointed by the federal Public Service Commission (PSC) but Khalid's administration has maintained that the appointment was unfair because the state government was not consulted. Chief secretary to the government Mohd Sidek Hassan said the appointment cannot be disputed or vetoed by the sultan. Sidek said the list of names presented to the palace for its "consideration" was done merely out of "courtesy".

In view of this, the state government announced that it intends to amend the state constitution to restore certain curbs on the sultan's authority that had been removed in 1993.
However, the ruling Pakatan Rakyat coalition is three seats short of a two-thirds majority required to amend the constitution. It is likely that Pakatan will try to pressure the BN opposition to support the amendments to show support for the palace.

Source : http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/153056

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