HRH Perak's choice of Azumu as MB surprised me

MM Online:

Perak Sultan: Covid-19 containment measures must be balanced

Sultan of Perak Sultan Nazrin Muizzuddin Shah launches SkilssMalaysia 2.0:Skills4all at the Perak Industrial Training Institute in Ipoh December 3, 2019

Picture by Farhan Najib

IPOH, May 12 — Efforts to curb the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic should remain as a priority, but containment efforts need to be balanced to ensure that the economy is not brought to a point from which recovery becomes very difficult, said the Sultan of Perak, Sultan Nazrin Shah.

He said the Covid-19 pandemic is extracting a heavy cost from the world, following the implementation of preventative measures including the movement control order (MCO) by the government since March 18.

Economies around the world are expected to suffer from major demand and supply shocks, followed by disequilibrium in the labour market, leading to a severe economic recession, he said.

“The International Monetary Fund projected global economy to contract by three per cent in 2020 — worse than the 0.7 per cent contraction which occurred during the 2009 global financial crisis — and it is expected to slow down post-pandemic.

“In the midst of addressing the challenges caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, Malaysia has also been severely impacted by a severe plunge in crude oil prices — the worst in three decades, resulting from the price war between the world’s largest oil producers," he said in a speech while officiating the 14th Perak State Legislative Assembly’s first meeting for the third year at the Bangunan Perak Darul Ridzuan here today.

Sultan Nazrin added that the country and the people are undergoing a very challenging phase — people, particularly the lower-income groups, are in dire straits with 2.4 million workers in the country expected to face financial difficulties and potential job losses.

In a royal address to parliament (whether state or even federal), HRH (or HM) merely reads from a government (PN) prepared text, outlining the state government's plans.

My bemusement with HRH Sultan Perak is not so much about that, of the state government's necessity to lift the MCO and get back into more active economic gear, but rather of his choice of the new MB for his state following a change of state government after Mahathir resignation caused Parti PRIBUMI representative (MPs and ADUNs) all over Peninsula to frog from PH to PN.

If we recall that back in 2008, when Pakatan Rakyat won the Perak state election, the first ever by an opposition coalition, his choice of MB was Nizar Jamaluddin, a PAS ADUN (today Amanah).

That was because the DAP could then only offer a Chinese or Indian, a definite no-no for the MB's position although in deepest part of my idealistic heart I had hoped for HRH (even then the Regent as his royal late father was medically indisposed) to come in from the 'left field' as he was a well Western educated royal, and supposedly more enlightened than other conservatives, but alas ........, whilst the PKR only proposed a postman who was not looked upon as the state to-be MB with much approval by HRH (a prescient assessment as subsequently the merajuk-ish member for Bota frogged across to BN, wakakaka).

Nizar Jamaluddin was of course an engineer which must have endeared him dearly to HRH in comparison (or contrast) to a mere postman - we Malaysians were/are paper-qualification snobs.

ketuanan inclined and treacherous to his former Harapan colleagues

But HRH's current choice of continuing with Azumu as MB totally surprised me because Azumu did NOT even complete his Business Studies degree at Edith Cowan Univeristy in Perth Australia. I had thought HRH laid much emphasis on a MB's tertiary education/qualifications. Maka, standards 'dah jatuh? Ampun Tuanku.