Selangor crisis: Let the people decide

A plea is made to Khalid to refrain from dissolving the state assembly.

COMMENT

By P Ramakrishnan

There is a possibility that in order to spite Pakatan Rakyat, Selangor Menteri Besar (MB) Khalid Ibrahim will call for the dissolution of the state assembly.

He may not be concerned about the rules and laws and norms that must be observed to overcome the present predicament that Selangor is embroiled in.

How ironic that Selangor is in this mess because of him.

With PAS’ unanimous decision to stick with Pakatan, it is crystal clear that Khalid can no longer pretend he has the majority support. Forty-three assemblypersons stand solidly together opposed to him continuing as the MB.

What he has are the 12 Umno assemblymen and himself. This does not even amount to 25% of the assembly.

Pakatan has more than 75% support, which is a whopping majority. This majority must be recognised and respected when arriving at any decision.

We do not have a hung situation in the assembly to consider a unity government or a minority one. The situation does not even warrant the dissolution of the assembly as a way out.

A solution is staring at us, which is in accordance with democratic tradition.

Khalid has no alternative but to step down and concede that Pakatan has the sole right to form the next Selangor state government.

The party commanding the majority in the state assembly must be called upon to form the next government. If we are law abiding and respect the rule of law, then we must observe this simple democratic principle and allow Pakatan to form the government.

To ensure that democracy prevails, NGOs and civil society must speak up and call for the appointment of the next MB from Pakatan to replace Khalid.

Either a civil society organisation or Pakatan must launch an online petition calling for the norms of democracy to be observed by demanding the appointment of the Pakatan candidate as the next MB.

If 100,000 people were to take up this call, it cannot be ignored.

Let the will of the people be known.

P Ramakrishnan is an executive committee member and former president of Aliran.