Perak

At such times of political and economical uncertainty, there is not much we can look forward to. This is indeed a very perilous time for us Malaysians.

Perak.

At this point of time, the Perak situation is very is disturbing. There are several points that I want to point out.

First and foremost, is it ethical to jump ship? The answer is no. Party hopping, in my humble opinion is a betrayal of trust on the voters. However, I find that under certain situations, such action can be accepted.

• If the votes during the previous election is very close, ie, below 500 votes, party hopping can be considered. Not when you win by over 10000 votes. (Hee Yit Foong, this means you) You might be wondering why I am making such a statement. When the majority is low, the votes are quite evenly split. Hence over a period of time, support for the party representing the constituency might decline. Therefore, there is a possibility, that a hop across the pond can be accepted by the voters, especially among the fence sitters.
• If the party hopping does not change the government of the day, I can accept. (DSAI, I honestly cannot accept your alleged attempts to coax BN parlimentarians to cross over)
• If the hoppers become indepents, without support of either side of the divide but vote based on the needs and wants of the voters, I can accept.

Secondly, here comes the ugly part. The role of Sultan Azlan Shah in this debacle.

• Call me naive, but I prefer to think that His Majesty acted on behalf of the people. I would rather believe that His Majesty feels in this economic downturn, a BN led state government will be able to persuade the federal government to release much needed funds to cushion the state againts a severe depression.
• However, if I may, point out that a state-wide snap election will have similar effects on the state economy. BN has a proven track record of using money to buy votes. This will have an instantaneous effect on the local economy. If the can spend over RM13m just for police presence in KT, imagine the amount they will spend to win Perak. Bear in mind, our development projects are hugely overpriced and a lot of the money released goes to cronies and their own pockets. Snap elections will funnel more money to the local economy directly.
• Who is the MB? Nizar or Zambry. Does the Sultan have the authority to dismiss the MB? Logically, no. UMNO's logic, yes. Common man's logic supercedes UMNO's logic. We don't need to see this professor or that professor coming out with their ideas of who is right and who is wrong. Intepretation Act my ass. Constitution supercedes whatever Act there is. Using this act is equalvalent to magistrates court over ruling the Federal Court. Get it yet?

The Speakers role in this whole mess. This can be sorted out very easily. Get a bunch of A-POLITICAL lawyers, get the state constitution, lay it out on a table and extract whatever you can find that relates to the Speakers powers. Analyse and interpret it. Case closed.

Solution.
Dissolve the state assembly and call for snap elections. Whatever result needs to be respected by both sides. His Majesty must ensure that this debacle doesn't happen again. By the way, didn't the three party-hoppers swore to the Sultan that they will support a PR government before choosing the MB? So they lied to His Majesty, isn't that derhaka as well?

The concept of Derhaka.
Let me tell you a story of 2 brothers, Nazar and Zambly (names are changed to protect the innocent). One day, their father ask them to find 59 marbles, whoever gets the most will get the only ice-cream in the fridge. Nazar found 31 of those marbles whereas Zambly found 28. So the father said Nazar won and gave him the ice-cream. (So far so good?)

Half way thru the ice-cream, Zambly noticed that Nazar left his marbles unattended and swiped 3 of them. He then went to his father and said, "I now have 31 marbles and Nazar only has 28, so I should get the ice-cream" His father thought for a while and agreed. Nazar complained that he Zambly stole his marbles so we should hunt again. His father said no because of the hassle and he never mentioned anything about how the marbles should be collected. So Zambly took the ice-cream.

But Nazar had 1 last plan. He proclaimed," It is already after 8 p.m. Mom said no ice-cream after 8 p.m." So this is the question, " Mom and Dad always work hand in hand to raise this family.They always work together and do not overrule each other. Has Nazar been disrespectful to his father when he made this proclamation?"

So you see, what is happening in a Perak is exactly the same as the story above. It is actually that simple. There has been no derhaka, no treason, no disrespect. Nazar is just playing by the rules.