Politik, Legislatif, Dasar dan Tadbir Urus

My article was earlier published in the rakyattimes.com on 10/3/2014 Recently, the Bukit Gelugor member of parliament and DAP national chairman Karpal Singh has been convicted and found guilty of sedition by the court against the Sultan of Perak. What wrong has Karpal committed then? As a lawyer, Karpal has made his expression known to the public based on his legal experience that certain ruler has erred in law and therefore can be subject to legal challenge. That was Karpal’s legal opinion based on the fact of the existence of Article 182 of the Federal Constitution where it clearly states that any ruler or even the King could be charged for an offence or sued in a civil suit in a Special Court. The DAP MP has made the said legal opinion in public following the 2009 coup d’etat of which the Perak state government was overthrown by Umno with the support from the palace and an Umno-led rebel state government was subsequently installed following the successful rebellion...

The DAP and its ally Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) are now both at odds over who should contest the Jalapang state seat in Perak come next general elections. The seat is currently held by Hee Yit Foong, presently claim herself to be an independent state assemblyman but clearly seen friendly to BN in the state legislative assembly. Hee had previously contested and won the state seat under the DAP ticket but resigned from the party a year later. Her resignation had also prompted the fall of the Pakatan Rakyat-led Perak state government in February 2009. DAP has in actual fact already established a very strong foundation in the opposition coalition Pakatan since 2008, and with this, we are in the opinion that DAP should give PSM an opportunity to take on the seat in the next general elections. We know that in the last general elections, PSM members too have been campaigning hard for DAP. So, why not pave one seat to PSM in order for them to prove their worth. Furthermore, the Per...

Pada 4hb Februari 2009 yang lalu, ahli-ahli dewan undangan negeri (ADUN) Perak daripada Umno telah mengadakan "persidangan dewan undangan negeri" mereka di bangunan Umno Perak dan mengumumkan tiga orang ADUN Pakatan Rakyat telah berpaling tadah dan menyertai BN dan Umno, lantas daripada itu, Umno Perak secara spontan melancarkan pemberontakan nekad di dalam usaha mereka untuk menggulingkan kerajaan negeri Pakatan yang diterajui oleh Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Mohd Nizar Jamaluddin. Siri pemberontakan dan rampasan kuasa yang didalangi oleh Umno Perak itu sebenarnya dirancang oleh Najib Razak dan pengerusi Umno Perak pada waktu itu, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi telah berjaya menggulingkan kerajaan negeri pimpinan Datuk Nizar, dengan adanya sokongan daripada pihak polis, cawangan khas polis dan kor risik tentera. Apa daya kerajaan negeri pimpinan Datuk Nizar pada masa itu, terpaksa berundur daripada kedudukannya setelah diasak dan diancam oleh pihak berkuasa kerajaan persekutuan, wal...

We are referring to The Star's report today highlighting the logging business which had went out of control, thus destroying the natural environment and habitat in most of the forest in the state. Yes, we too are especially concern over the clearance of thousand of hectares of forest which would further do more damage on the environmental conditions. Apart from the forests, hills were also being summarily cut to pave way for housing development projects which has been mushrooming in the state, currently managed by the PAS-PKR coalition government. We are wondering, why for most of the time, The Star is only focusing at Kedah? What about North Perak, Pahang and Sarawak? These three states are the worst affected with massive legal and illegal loggings for the past few decades. The people of Sarawak suffer the most as the result of these illegal loggings. Did you know what happened in North Perak forests? The BN federal government is near bankrupt now and this is where they got...

The court cannot interfere in matters that transpired in Perak state assembly proceedings and the Umno's resolution over the removal of V. Sivakumar as the state speaker, the Court of Appeal said. Justice Datuk Abdul Malik Ishak said whatever had taken place on May 7 last year in the Perak state assembly where Sivakumar was removed as the speaker by Umno and was replaced with Datuk R. Ganesan, was legitimate and valid. Is the Court of Appeal judge trying to say that it cannot interfere in what has been transpired in the Perak state assembly but the police can do so in helping Umno to forcefully remove Sivakumar from office? Is the Court of Appeal trying to translate that what Umno had done that is, holding a separate state assembly session at the corner of the hall chaired by their rebel deputy speaker, while the current speaker at that time was still present, is also also legitimate and valid? What kind of Court of Appeal is this? When presenting their judgment, did the court real...

The federal prosecution failed to prove a prima facie case against DAP National Chairman Karpal Singh, who allegedly uttered seditious remarks against the Perak sultan during the Umno-sponsored coup d'etat to toppled the state government early of last year. Actually, there is no case at all against Karpal. The federal prosecution is merely acting on instruction of the Umno-led BN federal government to bring a case against Karpal because he questioned the way the Perak state government was toppled and how can an Umno-led rebel state government being installed and recognized. In fact when Karpal was questioning this particular Perak constitutional crisis and Umno's high handed dictatorship in the state, he knew he was doing it in accordance not only with the law but the federal and state constitutions as well. Come on, Karpal is a well-versed legal practitioner who has been in this field for decades. The federal prosecutors are in fact making the fool of themselves for making an ...

As expected, the three Perak state assemblymen who contributed to the Umno sponsored coup d'etat which toppled the Perak state government early of last year were all handsomely rewarded for their "good" job done. Jelapang state assemblyman Hee Yit Foong was awarded a Datukship by the Sultan of Perak on recommendation by the Perak Umno rebel state government, while the other two assemblymen Jamaluddin Mohd Radzi and Mohd Osman Mohd Jailu have been freed of their corruption charges involving a RM180 million housing development project in Seri Iskandar near Ipoh. It is very clear that the rewards that these three assemblymen got were part of a “package deal” offered by the Umno-led Barisan Nasional (BN) to seize power and to topple the elected state government last year. As such, we view all these as an insult to the democratic rights of the people in the Perak state. An act of betrayal of trust given to them by the people. We hope in the next general election or should t...

The Malaysian Muslim Lawyers Association (PPMM) today disputed the Sultan of Pahang’s decision to commute Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarnor’s sentence, saying the ruler’s decree may not be in accordance with Islamic law. During the Perak constitutional crisis, Pakatan Rakyat leaders questioned the Sultan of Perak's decision to recognize the Umno-led rebel state government and with an immediate response, Umno quickly labelled the Pakatan leaders as "menderhaka" and even dragged one of the leaders to court and charge him for treason. For Kartika's case, why is Umno keeping so quiet and did not come out to protest PPMM's dispute with the Sultan of Pahang? Just because there are a lot of Umno members in PPMM and its committee. That is very certain. You name it and you get it. Whenever anyone who are not in line with Umno and Barisan Nasional, they are all labelled as "penderhaka" or traitor, while those who are aligned with Umno are treated as nothing wrong eve...

The ongoing constitutional crisis in Perak will prolong as long as the Umno-led rebel state government continue to rule the state in an unconstitutional way. First, they launched a coup d'etat on February 2009 to toppled the legitimate Pakatan state government. Then, later they sealed off the entire state legislative assembly building in order to prevent the State Speaker from convening the sitting session which was supposed to be held. A few months later, they ousted the legitimate State Speaker by bringing in a stranger and a non-state assemblyman to take over the speaker's office by force. Umno called in the security forces to assist them to oust the last Pakatan state assemblyman in public office. A total of three coup d'etats were organized by Umno to ensure they got hold of the entire state administration with their iron fist. State civil servants were threatened if they do not switch their support, which left them with no other choice but to follow what the Umno lead...

The Pakatan Rakyat (PR) has finally agreed to sportingly ceased its fight to remove rebel Umno mentri besar Datuk Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir and his rebel state government or call for snap polls after the Federal Court ruling showed the futility of their struggle. Datuk Seri Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin said last night the PR leadership had decided it was time to move on and work towards becoming a strong opposition in the state government. We welcome the sporting show extended by the state PR led by Datuk Seri Nizar today to move forward in order to achieve its long term objectives to expand and strengthen the people's support for the opposition coalition. Umno and Barisan Nasional (BN) has not being sporting at all during the last general elections on March 2008 where they had continuously refused to accept their defeat and vowed to avenge against the then Pakatan-led state government. A year later, the BN led by Umno launched a coup d'etat with the help from the security forces to t...

The Federal Court which is under the direct jurisdiction of the Umno-led BN federal government today ruled that Perak rebel leader Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir is the rightful "menteri besar" of the state after Umno launched a coup d'etat to toppled the Pakatan state government on early of February last year, thus also legalizing the current Umno-led rebel state government. This snuffs out the last hope of his toppled Pakatan's legitimate menteri besar and predecessor Datuk Seri Nizar Jamaluddin and deposed state speaker V. Sivakumar to be reinstated to their respective positions after a year long battle for justice. Well, this is expected. The federal court does not come under the parliamentary jurisdiction. The Judiciary Department (Jabatan Kehakiman) and Judiciary Appointment Commission (JAC) are both under the prime minister's department which reports directly to the Umno president Datuk Seri Najib Razak who is also the prime minister. We cannot blame all those judge...

The Perak state legislative assembly should be dissolved as soon as possible to resolve the current constitutional crisis in that state. First the current administration is a rebel state government established in a "state assembly sitting" held in the Perak Umno headquarters without the attendance of the legitimate Speaker V.Sivakumar. Second, the legitimate speaker was forcefully removed from office as the "mini state assembly sitting" held at the site of the state assembly hall was totally an illegal one because the state assembly session has not even commence its sitting which was supposed to be start of with the arrival of the Raja Muda of Perak followed by his speech. The chaos as the result of the coup d'etat created by Perak Umno must be stopped at all cost. We advise the state rebel leader Dr Zambry Abd Kadir, if you claimed that you have the support from the Perakians, then dissolve the state legislative assembly and immediately call for a fresh electio...

From MACC's massive targetting of Selangor state executive councillors, state assemblymen right to the cause of death onto DAP's Teoh Beng Hock, till today, what did MACC get and are there any results? Till now, no one from the Selangor Pakatan Rakyat state government has been proven of any corruption or any wrongdoings as alleged by some Umno leaders. The facts are simply very clear, MACC acted on rumours put up my Umno leaders who were going all out to cover all their original dirty works of their previous administration. That is why we could see and observe how the MACC acted. They were either being blinded or turned their eyes away from the happennings before 8 March 2008. What happenned before 8 March 2008? Well, prior to the general elections then, the district offices in various parts of Selangor had approved billions of Ringgit of funds for Umno state assemblymen to cover the expenditures for the entire year of 2008 in just two months. And these are all clearly blantant...

Malaysiakini recently reported that the Perak BN government is bent on destroying all people-friendly policies implemented during Pakatan’s 10-month rule. It seems like the BN rebel state government led by Umno is making its political revenge to be seen by the people and as a sign that they are serious of their revenge policies towards the previous Pakatan's new implementations. Even the conversion of 3,000 land titles has been fully cancelled and the one-coupon parking system scrapped as well. All these policies which are deemed to be people-friendly were all destroyed just because of Umno's revengeful attitude towards the Pakatan for defeating them in the last general elections. The people of Perak are victims of the BN-Umno political revenge and their ketuananhood. Can we let this political animals go on like that?

Datuk Seri Nizar Jamaluddin is expected to file an appeal soon at the court against the Appeals Court ruling that made Perak rebel leader Dr Zambry Abd Kadir the rightful menteri besar, thus overruling the previous judgment made by the Federal Court which declared Nizar as the legal menteri besar of Perak. The main concern here is will Nizar be given a fair and proper hearing for his appeal against the Appeals Court judgment? Why Appeals Court written judgment was delayed till today and Nizar has yet to obtain them? Do those judges who presided in the Appeals Court hearing the other day on 11 May know how to write their judgment? Are those judges seeking help from Datuk V.K.Lingam again to write the said judgment for them? Or supposedly an effort to sabotage Nizar’s appeal is ongoing? During the Perak constitutional crisis, we had seen the police and the security forces being tainted, the state constitution being thrown into the dustbin, the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) ...

By Abu Talib Othman The Perak incident was raised and discussed at SUHAKAM monthly meeting on 11th May 2009. It appears to us that during the incident that occurred in the Perak State Legislative Assembly on 7th May 2009, the police and the civil service acted in concert with the government that has assumed power in controversial circumstances, showing complete disregard for human rights. Governments may change but those who serve in the police and administration must remain loyalto the wider interest and respect human rights rather than the narrow interest of individuals who form the government of the day. When the elected members of the Assembly met and challenged each other in the august House, the police were busily engaged in “maintaining public order”. Outside, passive demonstrators dressed in black to mourn the violation of their rights to assemble peacefully, were particularly provoked and manhandled. The Dewan proceeded even while the court was still to decide on the following...

Perak remained in a political limbo yesterday, as leaders from both the Umno-led Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition and its rival Pakatan Rakyat (PR) alliance insist their chief is the rightful mentri besar. But concern is spreading among politicians and observers that the continuing mess will affect Perak's economy, as investors are unsure who to approach. The three-party PR coalition took over Perak after winning the most seats in the March general election last year. But on Feb 4, BN seized power after the defection of three PR lawmakers. “If you are a businessman and wish to invest in a certain project which can be approved only by the chief, who are you to see?” Dr Hsu Dar Ren wrote. “You see one a few hours ago and then a new one comes in through the revolving door, who is the actual boss?” asked Hsu, a top leader of Gerakan, a component party of BN. Yesterday, BN's Datuk Seri Zambry Abdul Kadir reported to work as mentri besar, just a day after PR's Datuk Seri Nizar Jam...