By Lim Kit Siang, MP for Gelang Patah

(Pic credit to The Malay Mail Online)

Khalid Ibrahim had committed the grave wrong on Monday of misleading the Selangor Sultan into believing that he still commanded the majority of the Selangor State Assembly members after being sacked as a PKR member last Saturday, when Khalid knew that this was not the case.

Before his audience with the Sultan on Monday, Khalid was duty and honour-bound, whether morally, politically and constitutionally, to verify that he still commanded the support of the majority of the State Assembly members to continue as Mentri Besar before making any representation to the Sultan that he still commanded the majority of the State Assembly, so that he would not be guilty of the grave wrong of misleading the Sultan as he had done on Monday.

But despite of being in the midst of a political crisis from being sacked as a member of PKR, Khalid never tried to verify from the Selangor State Assembly representatives, particularly from the 43 Pakatan Rakyat State Assembly persons from PKR, DAP and PAS who had given him the mandate to be the Pakatan Rakyat Mentri Besar of Selangor after the 2013 General Elections, whether he still commanded their support simply because he knew that he could not get such a majority support.

This is one major consequence of the declaration by 30 of the 56 Selangor State Assembly representatives today (15 from DAP, 13 from PKR and 2 from PAS) that they have lost confidence in Khalid as Selangor Mentri Besar and support Dr. Wan Azizah as the new Selangor Mentri Besar.

The only honourable way for Khalid to purge his grave wrong of misleading the Sultan on Monday that he still commanded the support of the majority of the State Assembly after being sacked as a PKR member is for him to resign gracefully, as it is crystal clear that he is hanging on the post of Mentri Besar solely on the “unconditional support” of the 12 Umno/Barisan Nasional State Assembly persons, while a clear majority of 30 out of 56 Selangor State Assembly representatives have lost confidence in him, with 13 PAS Assembly members yet to declare their stand.

“You may have the numbers but I’m still MB, Khalid tells Wan Azizah”, the headline in of the news portals, reflects Khalid’s state of mind to have a last-ditch stand to cling on to the Mentri Besar’s post for as long as possible, instead of facilitating a democratic transition of power like a graceful resignation on his part or the convening of an emergency State Assembly meeting on vote-of-confidence in the Mentri Besar.

As an emergency State Assembly can only be convened by the Mentri Besar, is Khalid prepared to uphold the word and spirit of the Selangor State Constitution to convene such an emergency State Assembly meeting?