Lets The People Decide

And so the High Court has ruled that Datuk Seri Nizar Jamaluddin is the rightful menteri besar of Perak. However, there is little hope that the court’s decision alone will bring about a firm resolution to the muddled political situation in the state.

At the time of writing, it is reported that the BN Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir will respect the court ruling – which includes rejecting his request for a stay of execution – and vacate the State Secretariat immediately, as his aide has said.

On the other hand, Prime Minister and BN Chairman Datuk Seri Najib Razak has said the coalition will appeal the court ruling. In addition, reports say that BN’s Speaker R Ganesan wants to call an emergency assembly sitting to force Nizar’s resignation through a vote of no-confidence.

Coming on the heels of the chaotic Perak State Assembly sitting of May 7, when elected representatives descended to an all-time low of disorderly conduct, the chances that a hastily called assembly will be able to decide anything meaningfully are, frankly, next to zero.

Given the farcical manner in which a new speaker was elected, and the previous speaker removed – literally kicking and screaming – from the house, the chances are that every single decision taken by one side of the divided assembly will be countered by an opposition motion by the other.

In other words, the only likely activity that can be expected in the assembly is an endless dispute by both sides. Will anything worthwhile come out of the fiasco in the end?

Let’s say Ganesan allows the motion for a vote of no-confidence and indeed the majority indicates it has lost confidence in Nizar. Will the vote be valid if it later emerges (say, through a court decision) that Pakatan Rakyat’s V Sivakumar is the rightful speaker?

And if Sivakumar is indeed the rightful speaker, can he refuse a motion for a vote of no-confidence? Let’s say he can’t. What about the seven BN state assemblymen (including Zambry) who have been suspended by the Rights and Privileges Committee? If they are barred from the House, BN won’t be able to win that vote of no-confidence.

Nizar has headed back to the Palace and will be asking for the House to be dissolved so that a state-wide election can be called. This is something that BN doesn’t want, probably because it is not confident it can win it.

This is also something that the Palace didn’t want – for reasons best known to itself – but it’s clearly the only solution to a very complicated situation. It’s not too late for the Palace to reverse its earlier decision and allow for a fresh election to be held.

It’s been said that having a new election is a waste of time and money, that the government of the day has more important things to do like deal with the economy. The problem in Perak is that there is no government of the day.

And surely, having a new election – as costly, time-consuming and disruptive as it may be – is still better than letting this legal and political imbroglio drag on indefinitely. And if no election is held, it will drag on.

When the crisis first broke The Edge Malaysia said that the best thing to do is to take it back to the people and put it to a vote. The events of the past three months have shown that we were right. All other attempts to resolve the issue has led to even more chaos.

In a democracy, including that of a constitutional monarchy, the government of the day should be determined by voters – not by the Palace or the courts, and most certainly not by the special branch or civil servants. Let the people decide.