Former Selangor Menteri Besar Dr Mohd Khir Toyo has rebutted the claim by Menteri Besar Abdul Khalid Ibrahim’s office that the ruler has never attended or been invited for state-level Merdeka celebrations.

“During (Barisan National) BN administration, every year we invited his highness. It was up to him whether to attend or not.

azlan “But every time when I met (with him before the programme), I invited him verbally and officially (through letters) to attend Merdeka eve celebrations and the recital of Al-Quran (the next day),” Khir ( right in photo ) told Malaysiakini when contacted today.

Hence he said the Pakatan Rakyat-led state government should apologies to the sultan instead of blaming others.

“As a good leader, if he knows he had done wrong, apologies over the mistake. Don't blame others. Just apologise.

“When you are appointed to be MB, you seek audience with his highness to swear in, but when you get the post, you leave him and don't invite him. This is ungrateful,” he added.

The Sungai Panjang assemblyperson also questioned the state government's decision to invite PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim to give a speech during the National Day celebrations.

“Why invite Anwar as special guest?... Who is the head of Selangor government, his highness or Anwar? Why use people's money to invite him?

“There can be no two special guests in one programme... both of them can't speak together. Why invite Anwar? On what capacity? Leader of political party cannot be invited (to speak) in state government's programme,” he added.

Not appropriate for Sultan to ask for invite

NONE During an interview with Berita Harian earlier, the Selangor sultan’s private secretary, Mohamad Munir Bani, shared the same view with Khir that the previous government, under BN, had invited the ruler to attend state-level Merdeka celebrations.

“State government, in principle, should invite his royal highness for state-level National Day celebrations. The arrangement of informing and inviting the Selangor sultan to the event was a normal practice carried out by the previous state government.

“It is not true (that the sultan has never attended state-level Merdeka celebrations). The Selangor sultan attended state-level National Day celebrations before, it’s just that I don’t remember the year,” he was quoted as saying.

Munir repeated that the sultan was “not happy” with the state’s arrangement of inviting Anwar to the celebrations and to give a speech.

NONE “Anwar won a seat in Penang and has no contribution to Selangor. His royal highness is not happy about this matter,” he said.

On the statement by Khalid’s office that the palace should inform the state government if the ruler wants to attend the celebrations, Munir argued that it is not appropriate for the sultan to ask for an invitation as the ruler’s status is higher than the state administration.

He added that the state government has always informed the palace about all official programmes related to the National Day celebrations and the sultan would decide his attendance, but it was not the case for this year's programmes.

“This year we were not informed. So how do we know whether his royal highness wanted to attend or not,” he added.