State secretary must run Melaka if emergency is declared, says lawyer
PETALING JAYA: If an emergency is announced in Melaka, the state secretary should be given the power to run the administration, and not the outgoing chief minister, says lawyer Mohamed Haniff Khatri Abdulla.
This is because the Melaka governor Mohd Ali Rustam had dissolved the state assembly on Tuesday after four assemblymen withdrew support for chief minister Sulaiman Md Ali, leaving his government with only 13 seats in the 28-seat assembly and paving the way for a state election.
Sulaiman is now the caretaker chief minister.
While the declaration of an emergency in Melaka would put the polls on hold, Haniff said the state secretary (Kamel Mohamad) should be the candidate to assume temporary leadership of the state.
“If after taking into account the advice given by all the relevant parties, the Yang di-Pertuan Agong believes that the state election should not be held and there should be an emergency, the right thing to do based on democratic principles is for executive power to be given to a body independent of politics – the state secretary,” he said during an online forum today.
“Executive power should not be vested in the same government of Sulaiman because he has lost majority support and admitted it. That would be undemocratic and an abuse of power.”
Earlier today, Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said the government would wait for deputy Yang di-Pertuan Agong Sultan Nazrin Shah to be briefed on the matter by the attorney-general, health ministry and Election Commission before making a decision on the emergency next week.
Article 19 (4) of the Melaka state constitution states that an election must be held within 60 days of the dissolution of the state assembly.
Ali dissolved the state assembly after the four – former chief minister Idris Haron, who represents Sungai Udang, former DAP man Norhizam Hassan Baktee (Pengkalan Batu), Bersatu’s Noor Effandi Ahmad (Telok Mas) and Umno’s Nor Azman Hassan (Pantai Kundor) – retracted support for Sulaiman
Idris and Nor Azman have since been sacked by Umno, while Noor Effandi has also been given his marching orders by Bersatu.
Idris has said the assemblymen decided to withdraw support for the state government as its leaders were “monopolising economic projects and cheating the government of sand royalties in Melaka.”
The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) met Idris yesterday to obtain information over his allegations, but Haniff said the authorities should have been brought in much sooner.
“If there really was abuse of power, the assemblymen should have reported this to the authorities and met their party’s top leaders,” he said.
“They could have brought this up to Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi or Umno deputy president Mohamad Hasan, or even to prime minister Ismail, who is an Umno vice- president, and urge for the government or the chief minister to be changed … and maintain the government with clean leadership.”
He was speaking at an online forum titled “The Melaka state government has fallen – Where is the dignity of political party leaders” organised by Piagam Rakyat.
Also on the programme was Kuang assemblyman Sallehudin Amiruddin, a former Bersatu member who held the party’s Selangor information chief post before turning independent in August 2020.
Noting that the constant changes in government at federal level were now happening at state level, Sallehudin urged Melaka folk to stop voting for politicians based on their parties.
“What has happened before (assemblymen pulling support) will happen again,” he said.
“This will be a never ending story.” - FMT
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