Here's a chance for the Sultan and BN to make things right

MAY 11 – Forget about the loss of face. Today’s High Court ruling that Datuk Seri Nizar Jamaluddin is the rightful mentri besar of Perak should be embraced by both Sultan Azlan Shah and the Barisan Nasional, albeit for different reasons.

For the Sultan of Perak, it is an opportunity to right a wrong. The former Lord President may believe that he exercised his discretion correctly when he asked Nizar to resign as MB in February following the defection of three Pakatan Rakyat lawmakers but the court of public opinion never felt so.

Now the High Court has rendered his decision null and void, saying that the correct procedure for removing a mentri besar is through a vote of no-confidence in the state assembly.

Sultan Azlan Shah can extract his royal household from this quagmire by granting Nizar an audience tomorrow and agreeing to dissolve the state assembly. (It is understood that the Sultan is presently out of the country.)

For the Barisan Nasional, if it wants to decouple the fallout from the Perak crisis from the rest of Malaysia and if the ruling coalition wants to ensure that voters across the country do not punish all its candidates for the indiscretion in one state, then it should hope that the Sultan dissolves the legislature and calls for state elections early.

Yes, there will be a long line of Umno politicians telling Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak that succumbing to public pressure is a sign of a weak leader and that a better option is to convene an assembly and throw Nizar out through a vote of no-confidence.

But the fact remains that too much shenanigans has happened between February and now for Perakians to accept another sideshow in the state assembly.

For many Malaysians, the defections of the three Pakatan Rakyat lawmakers which forced the collapse of the Pakatan state government will never be accepted as constitutional or legal.

The reasons are varied. Some people believe that the trio was induced by rewards to cross the political aisle while others believe that the decision by Speaker V Sivakumar to accept their undated letters of resignation was valid.

So, even if Zambry and gang muster enough votes to force Nizar out as the MB, the BN will still not have the legitimacy to rule. A better option for the ruling coalition would be to cut their losses now and go back to the people for a fresh mandate.

In this way, they will prevent the Perak power grab from being the Number One election issue in every electoral contest between now and the next general elections