Caretaker state governments cannot make important decisions - Bersih

SHAH ALAM - Kelantan, Selangor, Kedah, Penang, Negeri Sembilan and Terengganu caretaker state governments cannot make important decisions or announce any projects.

The Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (Bersih) said this was because all the respective state governments had temporary government status after the dissolution of the State Legislative Assemblies.

“The caretaker governments' function is to ensure that the basic operations runs smoothly until new governments are formed, it needs to stop making important decisions or announce any new projects,” he said in a statement on Tuesday.

He said any new democratic decision or announcement would be wrong and dubious from a legal point of view because they had no authority other than being a temporary government.

“The secretary’s office of the state governments needs to issue a temporary guideline as has been done at the federal level.

“The guidelines need to state that the Caretaker Government cannot make any binding decisions and policies or take any action that has financial implications and burdens the new government that will be formed unless the action needs to be carried out in the public interest,” the coalition said on Tuesday.

It also stated that any state government project that was about to or had been dissolved could only be promised in the manifesto and could not be announced as a decision.

“Bersih urges Malaysians to monitor and urge all state governments that are about to be dissolved to respect the fundamentals of democracy.

“If misconduct is allowed because of political bias, then all parties will race to form laws to win elections at the expense of public interest,” he expressed.