Protest against S'gor amendment Bill
Several hundred people demonstrated at Dataran Shah Alam this morning before the start of the Selangor state assembly’s emergency sitting to debate an amendment to the state constitution.
Several hundred people demonstrated at Dataran Shah Alam this morning before the start of the Selangor state assembly’s emergency sitting to debate an amendment to the state constitution.
The amendment proposes to return power to the sultan and state government to appoint top civil servants.
The demonstr
ators, wearing headbands with the acronym GAPS (for Gagasan Anti Penyelewengan Selangor) and Perkasa had gathered from 9.30am. Among them were Umno members.
Led by Shah Alam Umno division chief Ahmad Nawawi, 300 protesters marched to the state assembly building about 500m away. The crowd grew to 500 about 10.15am.
They marched while shouting slogans like ‘Undur (withdraw) PR’, ‘Tangkap (arrest) Anwar’ and ‘Daulat Tuanku’ (long live the king).
The protesters
carried placards and banners with words like 'Daulat Tuanku' and ‘Khalid gagap perampas kuasa raja Melayu’ (Khalid dares to snatch power of Malay rulers).
The police stopped them at the main gate of the building and allowed only five representatives to submit a memorandum toa BN representative.
The protesters then dispersed about 10.45am.
MB ‘cheating sultan’
In the memoran
dum, the protesters expressed concern that Menteri Besar Abdul Khalid Ibrahim (left) is attempting to cheat the sultan and the people through the proposed amendment.
The amendment says in part that the sultan “shall” consider the menteri besar’s advice in appointing state civil servants.
“'Shall' means it is compulsory for the sultan to (endorse the menteri besar’s choice of candidates),” said Ahmad, reading from the memorandum.
“In other words, it means that the menteri besar is in total control of determining the appointments, not the sultan.”
Under current practice, the menteri besar has no say in the appointment of the highest officials in the state.
“So where does it say that the menteri besar wants to return power to the sultan? The menteri besar actually wants to steal the power of the sultan and strengthen his own power by limiting those of the sultan in this matter,” added Ahmad.
