The Controversial Appointment of State Secretary

It is indeed a sad day that the appointment of the Selangor's State Secretary has been executed and blown out of proportion by the BN contolled mass media.

Let us be a bit more sensible. It is the PSC, as we now know, which appointed Mohd Khusrin according to the prevailing procedure and in consistency with the State's Constitution. But one thing we must admit is that Selangor is not under the BN but rather under the PR. For any State appointment, it is only prudent and advisable to seek the advice of the Menteri Besar concerned, whether PSC likes it or not. It cannot act in isolation.

According to the State Constitution of Selangor, there exists a provision of the establishment of a state public service commission which is empowered to appoint the State Secretary. In my opinion, the appointment by the Federal PSC is wrong in law and therefore the appointment of Khusrin must be void and of no effect.

I am afraid that if this matter is being referred to the local court for judicial review, it will not be surprising if the verdict will be one in favour of the BN Government. I hope the Perak saga will be sufficient to open the eyes of the public.
BN is resorting to the same dirty strategy here to involve the sultan and uses the sultan position to shut up the public from expressing any opinion.

After all, the incumbent is not going to work with the PSC but with those people's respresentatives in the State Government. And, this point is important and the PSC just cannot ignore the people's factor by just telling the people that it had obtained the permission from the Sultan, who denied that he had anything to do with it.

How the BN accused the PR for not respecting the Selangor Sultan was most uncalled for and unwarranted. Where my opinion goes, the appointee needs to take the oath of office before the Sultan as per the Constitution of the State. The selection is not done by the Sultan but by the PSC. By dragging the Sultan into disrepute is most irresponsible. It is even more irresponsible to organse a protest among the NGOs against the objection of the PR Government to Khusrin's appointment.

What the BN did was akin to the high-handed usurpation of the power of the PR State Government in Perak. I dread the day when the BN Government attempt to take over the Selangor Government. In my view the appointment of the State Secretary is just the beginning of a long term plan to upstage the PR Government in Selangor. All I can say is, PR elected representatives be alert and stop the inter-party squabbles among the coalition members and work towards the welfare of the people like in Penang.

It must be remembered that the PSC is merely performing a staff function. As such it must realise that in human recruitment exercises, the success of which is often based on the human factor or chemistry between the incumbent and his immediate superior. This practice is prevalent in the private sector.

PSC has the sole responsible to ensure that the right person with the right qualifications and experience is being recruited for the right job. On the relational aspect, it must be left to the line management to decide on the right candidate to be given the appointment.

If only PSC has done the right thing, the controversies would not have arisen. Much time and pains are saved for productive work.

What PSC has done in my view is not consistent with sound human resource management practice. The power conferred upon it is slightly misapplied.

Let us learn the lesson from the above incident. Do not let others perceive that big brotherlism is being exercised to shut the voice of those elected by the majority of the electorate in Selangor.