Media Statement by Lim Kit Siang in Ipoh on Thursday, 7^th May 2009: 

Najib’s 1Malaysia shredded into smithereens by the disgraceful police lockdown of Ipoh and the scandalous spectacle of two Speakers and two Assemblies

The Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s 1Malaysia has been shredded into smithereens by the disgraceful police lockdown of Ipoh and the scandalous spectacle of two Speakers and two Assemblies – as if the constitutional scandal of two Mentris Besar is not bad enough for Perak and Malaysia!

It is unlikely that Najib will be able to live down the political baggage of having orchestrated the three-month Perak constitutional and political crisis and stalemate spawning two Mentris Besar, two Speakers, two Assemblies together with three renegade State Assembly members and a renegade State Assembly clerk unless he is prepared to act boldly to admit his colossal error and misjudgement and agree to the dissolution of the Perak State Assembly for the holding of Perak state-wide general election to return the mandate to Perakians.

For the sake of an unethical, undemocratic, illegal and unconstitutional power grab, Najib has brought important institutions of the country into greater disrepute, whether the police, the MACC, the judiciary and seriously impaired the vital doctrine of separation of powers.

Perakians, Malaysians and the world today witness another unethical, undemocratic, illegal and unconstitutional power grab – the office and powers of the Speaker when the Perak State Assembly has not officially met.

The mass arrests including Pakatan Rakyat MPs and State Assembly representatives in the police lockdown of Ipoh, turning the Perak capital into a war-zone, must be condemned in the strongest possible terms illustrating the ludicrous lengths of such a baseless police crackdown.

*Lim Kit Siang, DAP Parliamentary leader & MP for Ipoh Timor