No ruler, not even Queen Elizabeth II, has the power to select the prime minister under the Westminster parliamentary system, says senior lawyer Tommy Thomas.
Using the British political crisis in 1990 and 1991 as an example, Thomas said, the Conservative Party wanted to get rid of Margaret Thatcher and John Major was appointed to replace her to lead the party.
And still, the ruler did not intervene and appointed Major as the next prime minister.
"Did Queen Elizabeth, as the constitutional monarch, have a choice and say 'I do not like Major and I do not want him to be the PM', and 'I prefer (Michael) Hasseltine' to lead the Conservative Party?
"She is a constitutional monarch, she has no say in the selection of the leader of the Conservative Party," Thomas said at an international conference today.
Moving on to Australia, he said the governor-general also did not intervene in the Labour Party tussle involving Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard.
"Did the governor-general of Australia, who has the power of a constitutional monarch, have the discretion to say 'Gillard, I won't accept you and I noticed that you are a woman'?" Thomas asked.
Like the two classic examples of the application of the Westminster systems in appointment of chief executives, he said, India’s president too did not have a say when Narendra Modi won the country's last general election earlier this year.
"The president of India couldn't say, ‘I don't like Mr Modi or I do not like the outfit he wears, give me three other names’," he said at the International Malaysia Law Conference in Kuala Lumpur.
Thomas
Thomas was responding to a question from the floor from a lawyer on what is taught in constitutional law classes and what is applied in the present situation, especially with the Selangor crisis.
Yesterday, PKR deputy president Azmin Ali was sworn-in as Selangor menteri besar upon the sultan's selection, although his party nominated its president, Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail. -Malay Mail
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.