Nizar report to work but forced to pray outside

A prayer before beginning entering the state secretariat this morning in Ipoh, MB Datuk Seri Nizar Jamaluddin starting his day with his followers. - Reuters pic

By Shannon Teoh

IPOH — At 7.34am today, Datuk Seri Nizar Jamaluddin arrived at the State Secretariat building here to report for work, almost four months after he was forced to vacate his mentri besar office here.

In sharp contrast to the war zone scenario outside the same building last Thursday, everything was calm and orderly this morning despite heavy police presence.

The entrance to the building is now blocked by FRU barriers and one side of the road in front is closed to traffic.

By the time Nizar arrived, most of his exco were already there. He walked to the entrance, led some prayers outside and then went inside.

Pakatan Rakyat Speaker V. Sivakumar was also there.

About 10 minutes later, Nizar left the building after clocking in as mentri besar, a ruling made by the Kuala Lumpur High Court yesterday.

His next appointment is with the Perak Regent, Raja Nazrin Shah. (tmi)

In another glaring example of what’s wrong with Malaysia under Prime Minister Najib Razak, Perak police continued to act as guardians of the political interests of his Umno-BN, rather than as safe-keepers of the rakyat or maintainers of the law.

On Tuesday morning, Pakatan Rakyat leaders including Menteri Besar Nizar Jamaluddin were initially denied entry into the state secretariat complex, although the High Court had a day ago declared Nizar the rightful chief minister.

While cars of other civil service employees were freely allowed into the Perak Darul Ridwan building, Nizar and his exco team were made to enter on foot!

As Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim rightly stressed on Monday, the separation of powers between the executive, the judiciary and legislative must be clearly defined and all parties especially the federal apparatus, such as the police, the civil service and the courts, must behave professionally at all times.

Nevertheless, in a show of goodwill, the ever-resilient Nizar did not protest the shabby treatment meted out to him and his executive councillors. But before entering - to offer thanks and to seek blessings for a safe outcome - he and team held prayers by the roadside. (SK)

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Nizar's pleadings with the Sultan

KUALA LUMPUR, - He pleaded, appealed and even cajoled Sultan Azlan Shah to dissolve the Perak state assembly, saying that with the resignation of the three Pakatan Rakyat lawmakers there was deadlock in the House between the coalition he led and Barisan Nasional.

Datuk Seri Nizar Jamaluddin said that at no time during his audience with the Sultan did he ask the monarch to dissolve the assembly and call for fresh elections because he had lost the confidence of the majority of the members of the state assembly.

Nizar cleared this important point in an affidavit which was filed in the High Court yesterday as part of the judicial review application challenging Datuk Seri Zambry Kadir appointment as the Mentri Besar of Perak.

The Perak state legal advisor in his affidavit said that when Nizar appeared before the Sultan on February 4, he asked the Malay Ruler to dissolve the house because he had lost the confidence of the House.

This point is important because it gives some legitimacy to the Sultan's actions in asking Nizar to quit as the Mentri Besar, an act which paved the way for Zambry to be made the chief executive of the state.

But Nizar in his affidavit noted that the state legal advisor was an interested party in the case, having represented and taken instructions from Zambry.

His description of the events on Feb 4 were wrong, said Nizar. Nizar recalled that on Feb 4 he informed the Sultan that three Pakatan Rakyat lawmakers had resigned.

They could not be contacted and seemed to have gone missing.

He then asked the Sultan to dissolve the assembly because it was appropriate to have fresh elections given the deadlock situation in the House with Pakatan Rakyat and BN having equal number of seats.

The Sultan said he would study the matter further and told Nizar that Allah is with those who are patient.

At no point during the audience, did the issue of Nizar losing the confidence of majority of the assembly crop up.

On Feb 5, the Sultan informed Nizar that he was rejecting the request to dissolve the assembly.

Hearing this, Nizar interjected and spoke for 15 minutes, urging the Ruler to allow the people of Perak to exercise their rights and elect their own government.

"When the assembly is dissolved, the rakyat will view the Sultan as someone who is fair and not partisan. They will in turn respect the institution for returning to them their rights to elect the government.
This is also consistent with the constitutional monarchy system and democratic principle here…

"In contrast, if the people were denied their rights, the people may lose respect for the institution and the Sultan…I pointed out that history showed that in countries such as Egypt and Iran the institution of the monarchy was diminished or completely wiped out when decisions not in the interest of people were made.''

To support his case, Nizar also read out a passage from the book "Constitutional Monrachy: Rule of Law and Good Governance .

It said: "Under normal circumstances, it is taken for granted that the Yang di-Pertuan Agong would not withhold his consent to a request for dissolution of Parliament. His role is purely formal.

The book was given to Nizar by Sultan Azlan Shah when he was installed as the MB last year.

As soon as Nizar finished his 15 minute plea, the Sultan looked up at him and declared that he would not dissolve the assembly and urged Nizar to resign.

Meanwhile, in a supporting affidavit, Perak Speaker V Sivakumar said that on Feb 6, he wrote to the Sultan to convene a state assembly sitting so that a vote of confidence could be held.

Till today, he has not received a reply from the palace, forcing him to take steps to protect the name and integrity of the assembly. (TMI)

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Nizar seeks audience with Sultan

IPOH: Datuk Seri Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin is seeking an audience with the Sultan of Perak, Sultan Azlan Shah, to present the Ruler with the three motions passed during Tuesday’s emergency sitting.

Former Perak executive council member Nga Kor Ming confirmed Friday that the palace had been notified of Nizar’s hope to meet with the Sultan.

He said the documentation for the three motions had been completed and notice submitted to the palace shortly after Tuesday’s sitting.

The motions were: An affirmation of the assembly’s confidence in Nizar as the rightful mentri besar; an appeal for Royal consent to dissolve the state assembly; and the adoption of the decision to suspend current Mentri Besar Datuk Dr Zambry Abd Kadir and his six exco members.

“We appeal from the bottom of our hearts, for the sake of the people of Perak, that his Royal Highness grants us audience as soon as possible.

“It is the wish of the people that the state assembly be dissolved so that power is returned to them. With greatest respect to the Ruler, we hope we are granted an audience,” he told reporters here Friday.

Nga said that in all Commonwealth countries, any motion passed in the state legislative assembly or Parliament had to be adopted and complied with.

He also quashed questions on the legality of the motions passed, in view of the court order restraining Speaker V. Sivakumar from holding any unlawful meetings purporting to be state assembly meetings.

“It was only an ex-parte order, made on an ex-parte application. The order merely restrains Sivakumar from convening ‘unlawful’ meetings, meaning that ‘lawful’ meetings are not affected.

“We do not need a court order to tell us that unlawful meetings are not allowed,” he said.

Nga said the order, granted by the Ipoh High Court on Tuesday and served to Sivakumar on Wednesday, also did not declare illegal the proceedings passed during the emergency sitting.

“The motions passed therefore remain unaffected and should be enforced, for there was no court order declaring otherwise.

“We had the quorum, we adjourned to a lawful place under the ‘yellow flame tree’ and we had a legal Speaker,” he said.

Nga said that to honour the resolutions, Dr Zambry should “call it a day” and resign from his post for he no longer commanded the majority support of the House. (The Star)

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