Media Comment (2) by Lim Kit Siang in Petaling Jaya on Tuesday, 12^th May 2009: 

Perak in limbo with no Mentri Besar – PR lawyers to set aside Court of Appeal single-judge “stay” decision

Datuk Zambry Abdul Kadir has likened himself to Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela, causing all-round derision, outrage and revulsion.

If Zambry dreams of being a Gandhi, he would not want to be an illegitimate and unlawlful Mentri Besar even for a second.

He would not lay claim to be the Perak Mentri Besar as after the Nizar vs Zambry judgment of Justice Abdul Aziz Abdul Rahim yesterday, he is doubly illegitimate as the Perak Mentri Besar.

Zambry went against everything Gandhi stood for in announcing that he would again “gate-crash” the Perak State Secretariat building tomorrow to illegitimately re-occupy the office of Mentri Besar!

Zambry was defaming the memory of Gandhi in suggesting that the great Indian moralist would have approved Zambry for being a doubly illegitimate MB.

The most astounding single-judge Court of Appeal decision to grant stay of the Abdul Aziz declaration does not in any way salvage Zambry’s position as a doubly illegitimate MB.

Abdul Aziz declared Zambry as an unlawful and illegitimate MB and Nizar the lawful and legitimate MB.

The stay given by a single judge of the Court of Appeal “stayed” Nizar from taking back his lawful and legitimate office as Perak Mentri, but it did not overturn the High Court decision and could not be taken to mean that Zambry can continue to be illegal and illegitimate Perak MB.

This will be against public policy and national interest. Perak government is in total limbo, without a Mentri Besar, as Nizar, the lawful and legitimate MB has been “stayed” from exercising his powers and responsibilities, while Zambry, the unlawful and illegitimate MB, could not be deemed to be licenced by the Court of Appeal to continue to act illegally.

Allowing someone whom the Court has declared to be an unlawful and illegitimate MB to continue in office would have completely horrified Gandhi – and Zambry likens himself to Gandhi!

The lawyers I spoke to in the past few hours are shocked at the Court of Appeal single-judge “stay” decision.

Pakatan Rakyat lawyers will set aside the Court of Appeal single-judge “stay” decision in an urgent application tomorrow.

Zambry and his usurper Exco should not re-occupy the SUK offices to avoid another sorry spectacle of having to vacate them after a few hours.

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