Day: February 22, 2009

Yesterday, the illegal and illegitimate Perak Mentri Besar Dr. Zambry Abd. Kadir admitted that people were wondering whether he was truly the Mentri Besar and lamented that his position was considered illegitimate and illegal – undoubtedly by the majority of the people in Perak and Malaysia if they are given the opportunity to have their say.

Zambry should seek legitimacy as Perak Mentri Besar through a new snap state election in Perak as he will never gain legitimacy through the immoral, illegal, undemocratic and unconstitutional power grab orchestrated by the new UMNO Perak chief and the Prime Minister-in-waiting Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

Unless the Perak State Assembly is dissolved to return the mandate to the voters of Perak to elect the state government of their choice, Zambry will go down in Perak and Malaysian history with the dubious reputation as the “usurper” and illegal Mentri Besar who has no popular mandate or legitimacy to be the head of government because of the immoral, undemocratic, illegal and unconstitutional power grab orchestrated by Najib.

The Perak political and constitutional crisis sparked by Najib’s immoral, illegal, illegitimate and unconstitutional power grab had dragged on for too long and it is the responsibility of all the political leaders in both Pakatan Rakyat and Barisan Nasional to end the political stalemate of two Mentris Besar to restore the people’s confidence and mobilise state and national energies to face the worst global economic crisis in 80 years. Continue reading “Zambry – seek legitimacy as Perak MB through state polls”

By Tunku Abdul Aziz
MySinchew

Today, I begin a new life as a columnist for Sin Chew, an experience that I know I will enjoy enormously.

Two days ago, I had lunch with a parliamentarian and two senior bureaucrats from Germany on their first official visit to Kuala Lumpur. They came, they saw and were impressed with our capital city and the development they had seen so far as they travelled around KL and its environs. They had obviously been well-briefed by their own government agencies about the social and political climate in our country and apparently were extremely well informed on Malaysian affairs. The Germans, as we all know, are meticulous in everything they do, and so I was not at all surprised when one of them who headed his organization’s foreign department asked this penetrating question.

“Why is there all this flurry of activity to bring about a regime change when the government has brought so much prosperity to the country?” I must admit that for a while I was stumped for words. Why indeed! When at last I recovered my composure, I explained between mouthfuls of tasty offerings that what was apparent was not always real. In our wide-ranging conversation I reflected aloud our national concerns in the following terms.

Underneath all the glint, gleam and glitter of aluminium, stainless steel and plate glass lies a sad tale of greed and corruption, involving the political and bureaucratic elites who govern and administer this land. There will be official denials galore. Some years ago, Transparency International estimated, somewhat conservatively many thought, that Malaysian public infrastructure projects cost 30% more than they should. As far as political corruption is concerned, a major component of the ruling coalition has admitted that problem exists among its membership and the party is wrestling with it as best it can. Continue reading “Man Does Not Live By Bread Alone”