Press Statement by Charles Santiago in Klang on Tuesday, 5^th May 2009:

Mockery in Perak – Resist in Black

The Perak state assembly is set to reconvene for the first time after a political coup which saw the collapse of a democratically elected Pakatan Rakyat government. The coup was crafted by none other than Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak, who is now banking on his 1Malaysia, People First, Performance Now slogan to boost his popularity among the public.

The assembly sitting would also see a showdown between the Barisan Nasional government and Speaker V Sivakumar.

The proposed assembly is ludicrous as former Perak Menteri Besar Mohd Nizar Jamaluddin's judicial review against Zambry Abd Kadir to determine the rightful chief minister is now before the Kuala Lumpur High Court which has fixed a three-day hearing from Monday to hear the application.

Making plans to proceed with the sitting one day after the completion of the hearing would send out wrong signals and instigate people to speculate on the independence of the judiciary.

In a sharp contrast, Najib’s call for unity and his pledge to do away with “government knows the best” mentality simply does not gel with what is staged to happen this Thursday. Zambry would go on to occupy the position of Menteri Besar which he never deserved as he was not chosen by the people.

May 7 would also mark a shift in Malaysia’s political and Parliamentary history as an illegal government would be made legal. We would have an illegal government grappling for legitimacy under the watch of Najib, the premier who crones about putting the interest of the rakyat first.

While Zambry might be happy to carry on his duties weighed down by the rusted baggage of the past, Malaysians are furious. If Najib is serious about his reform plans, he must call for fresh elections in Perak to give the people another chance to elect their government. Or we could conclude that Najib was merely paying lip service.

As it is the Prime Minister has to work extra hard to convince Malaysians to endorse his leadership. Adding flavour to the political drama is Najib’s uncomfortable past which includes screaming headlines in blogs and independent news portals linking him to the murder of a Mongolian woman and allegations of corruption amounting to billions of dollars in kickbacks pocketed through the purchase of arms.

The state assembly sitting would add to the list of Najib’s scandals. The rakyat saw through the coup which was orchestrated to entrench Najib’s position before the UMNO General Assembly where he was made the country’s premier.

Since the beginning of the political manoeuvring by Barisan Nasional, Perakians had shown total support for the opposition leaders and Pakatan Rakyat government, braving baton-wielding riot policemen to show their anger in public.

The matter got worse as the Perak Ruler worked in cohorts with Najib and the ruling National Front Coalition government. Instead of dissolving the state assembly and paving the way for fresh elections, the Sultan allowed Barisan Nasional to form a new government.

While there were back and forth wrangling over the right of the people to question the Ruler, former Perlis mufti has indicated that the public could do so as Raja Azlan Shah is accountable to the Rakyat.

While the political high drama in Perak has posed an awkward problem for the Sultan, all is not lost. Azlan Shah should take heed of Sivakumar’s petition and postpone the state assembly until the position of the Menteri Besar is decided by the High Court.

As for Najib, we could only hope that the setback faced by the ruling coalition at the last general election would have prompted the strengthening of UMNO’s democracy. Najib would certainly fail to inspire much confidence in the electorate if he allows the Thursday sitting.

But the recent political developments have not been promising. Therefore, if the assembly is held, I would like to urge every Malaysian to wear black to mourn the death of democracy. Bloggers should also have their web page in black for one week to send a strong signal to the Najib-led government.

It is clear that the premier is striving at a long political career. But Thursday’s events could contribute to Najib’s short-lived romance.

* Charles Santiago, Selangor DAP Vice Chairman & MP for Klang