KUALA LUMPUR: With the Selangor menteri besar (MB) imbroglio now over, Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah (pic) wants new Menteri Besar Mohamed Azmin Ali and his team to focus on the people, an English daily reported.

The Selangor ruler said he wants to see results, adding that he has had enough of politicking.

“I want Azmin to deliver for the rakyat,” he told the daily in an exclusive interview in conjunction with his 69th birthday yesterday.

The sultan also gave out awards with honorific titles in conjunction with his birthday, but Mohamed Azmin was not on the list.

“Plan properly for the long term, get the right people to implement the plans and leave a legacy of development that benefit the people and the next generation,” he said.

He also advised the state’s leaders to avoid making populist decisions or statements.

“Don’t try to be a hero at the expense of the rakyat,” he was quoted as saying.

Referring to the eight-month long crisis, the sultan expressed concern that the imbroglio had affected the state government, describing the disruption to the state government as “very, very selfish”.

He also said the democratic process should not be abused.

The ruler said he was shocked when he first heard of the Kajang move, mooted by PKR to replace Mohamed Azmin’s predecessor Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim.

Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was initially slated to contest to pave the way for him to helm Selangor but that was stymied by the Court of Appeal decision that Anwar was guilty of sodomising his former aide, leaving PKR to settle on Anwar’s wife, PKR president Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.

Wan Azizah won the Kajang by-election and was PKR and DAP’s sole choice for the MB post, a move that was resisted by conservative leaders within ally PAS, who felt that she was not qualified.

In the interview with the daily, the ruler also reprimanded those who spread rumours that the palace was against women becoming the state’s MB.

“I am not against any woman becoming the MB but my benchmark is that she must be like the Bank Negara governor,” he was quoted as saying, referring to Tan Sri Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz.

Sultan Sharafuddin said he had the highest respect for female personalities like Dr Zeti and Universiti Malaya pro-chancellor Toh Puan Dr Aishah Ong and other good women leaders. — The Malaysian Insider

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on December 12, 2014.