It is ideal for the Selangor Menteri Besar crisis to be resolved as soon as possible, before the annual budget sitting in the state legislative assembly in November, says Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (Ideas) chief operating officer Tricia Yeoh.

Yeoh (right) said the crisis should come to an end by Dec 27, as that would be the six months cut-off point from the previous state assembly sitting.

She noted that the state legislative assembly cannot remain "vacant" for more than six months.

"If the menteri besar presents the state budget and gets it endorsed by the assemblypersons, does it not mean (that he has obtained) a vote of confidence by default?" Yeoh asked.

She raised the matter in a paper she presented at a conference on Federalism in Malaysia (Penang and Selangor Situations) organised by the Penang Institute in George Town yesterday.

"The menteri besar can use this situation to his advantage to say that if the state assemblypersons do not vote for the budget, they would be denying the Selangor rakyat a year's development," added Yeoh, a former research officer with the Office of the Selangor MB and the state government.

PKR's plan to replace outgoing Menteri Besar Abdul Khalid Ibrahin with party president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, despite obtaining the endorsement of 30 out of 56 state assemblypersons, has stalled as the Selangor ruler will only decide on the matter after the PAS muktamar this weekend.

PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang's decision not to support Wan Azizah has put the party in a clash with its allies PKR and DAP, which insist that Wan Azizah takes over as Selangor memteri besar.

On Monday, in his keynote speech at the opening of the conference, PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim said the Selangor crisis occurred because of an "acute lack of consensus" on shared values among the Pakatan parties.

'Crisis has huge repurcussions on Pakatan'

Yeoh said that as a Selangor citizen, she felt that the ongoing menteri besar crisis has "huge repercussions" on Pakatan's ability to coalesce, and that it would affect the ability of the state to progress.

She noted that the different factors - from the palace to Umno's federal and state leaders and Pakatan's internal and intra-party conflicts - have worsened the situation.

"The crisis had come at a detrimental cost. We must not forget how central politics affect state politics," said Yeoh who previously served as director of the Asli Centre for Public Policy Studies.

She also touched on the issue of Khalid's legitimacy as menteri besar heading a caretaker government in signing the RM7.45 billion water industry master agreement with Putrajaya last Friday.

Several quarters, including anti-corruption NGO Centre to Combat Corruption and Cronyism (C4), have demanded for the deal to be publicised for the sake of accountability and transparency.

Yeoh said the agreement was not signed by the menteri besar, but by the state secretary.

"So, even if the position of menteri besar is being disputed, the state secretary’s post is not," she quipped.

Khalid, who has been Selangor menteri besar since 2008, fell out of favour with PKR over his response to several issues, including the much opposed Kinrara-Damansara Expressway (Kidex), the higher-than-expected salary hike for Selangor assemblypersons, the seizure of the Bible by the Selangor Islamic Affairs Department, the state water restructuring plan and his alleged lack of communication with PKR and other assemblypersons on state matters.

On allegations of not spending the state's revenues - which is today the highest in 28 years - to improve the lives of Selangorians, Yeoh said the complaints came from "political parties and not from the people".