After the Euphoria and the short honeymoon

The Headlines in the Star today blared “Perak Crisis.”

In short, the Perak DAP under Ngeh had agreed to the power sharing agreement. But DAP headquarters ordered the DAP state assemblyman not to attend the investiture. I can only suppose that Lim Kit Siang was hoping the leverage the fact that they have 18 seats in the state legislature to be either kingmaker OR to be crowned “king” themselves. Ngeh, I can only assume, negotiated the Deputy CM’s post (supposedly extra-constitutional) in exchange for more seats on the exco. Not an entirely bad thing.

Instead we get what looks like sour grapes. How silly!

I’d be the first one to say that the party with the most seats SHOULD get the Chief Minister’s position. However, this isn’t any other country. This is Malaysia folks. We’ve just come out of a contentious election which has brought an immense amount of hope to ordinary Malaysians. We’ve handed the opposition 5 states. We want change!

Let’s face it. Our racial politics is not going to change overnight. The whole point of electing the opposition was to get things done! Not to argue about who get’s the post of Chief Minister. Yes, it would have been the magnanimous thing to do, but the mission is to lead Perak, Penang, Selangor, Kelantan and Kedah on a different path. To show that not only can the races work together but that parties of different ideologies want the same thing; what is best for the people!

Politics is the Art of the possible. One of the world’s greatest politicians uttered this and look at what he achieved. Otto Von Bismarck. The Iron Chancellor.

You don’t go around leaving openings for the government to shoot you down and point gleefully and say “see, we told you so!” What was he thinking?

More than anything, we can expect more of the same of this sort of stuff. Let’s be realistic.

We’ve had 30 to 40 years of “business-as-usual;” of cronyism, of affirmative action which only benefited certain people. In all likelihood it’s going to take the patience of Job and the staying power of lots of political viagra for the PEOPLE to put things right again. That means that we are going to see bickering, arguments, heated discussions, spin, and all sorts of unpleasantness before any of this gets put right. And even then, looking at more mature democracies, it’ll STILL be a work in progress.

That’s right folks. This never ends.

The good part is this; I certainly hope that people now realise more than ever that their destiny is in their own hands. By the Grace of God, in compassion and faith, we need to take responsibility and move forward.

PAS’ Nizar is new Perak MB

From Malaysiakini.com Realpolitik v. the wishes of the people.

Andrew Ong | Mar 12, 08 5:49pm

Pasir Panjang state assemblyperson and Perak PAS secretary Mohamad Nizar Jamaludin was today confirmed as the new menteri besar of the state. The decision was reached after the Regent of Perak Raja Nazrin Shah met with the three nominees for the post this evening. The other two candidates for the post were state DAP chairperson and Sitiawan state assemblyperson Ngeh Khoo Ham and PKR’s Behrang assemblyperson Jamaluddin Mohd Radzi. Also decided today is that Ngeh would be made the deputy menteri besar (1) while an Indian candidate would be made deputy menteri besar (2). Earlier, the Penang state government has announced a similar multiracial arrangement for its top leadership. The Indian deputy MB will come from one of the five elected assemblypersons – four from DAP and one from PKR They are DAP’s A Sivanesan (Sungkai), KS Keshvinder Singh (Malim Nawar), VN Sivakumar (Tronoh) and A Sivasubramaniam (Buntong) and PKR’s S Kesavan. Nizar will be sworn in as the new menteri besar at 4pm tomorrow. Under the state constitution, the menteri besar has to be a Malay Muslim, but there is a provision that allows the sultan to waive the requirement. Of a total of 59 state seats, DAP controls 18 seats while PKR has seven and PAS six, making a total of 31. The remaining 28 are in the hands of BN. A down-to-earth guy Nizar apologised for causing some anxiety among the public in the late announcement of the post. “I would also like to give my assurance that all state decisions will be made collectively,” he told reporters. Nizar, 51, is one of the professionals who made it to the top echelon of the PAS leadership in the state. An engineer who obtained his degree from United Kingdom’s Aston University of Science and Technology in Birmingham, Nizar was highly respected for being a Quran reading champion. “He is the religious type and a successful businessman,” said cousin Shuib Hussin, 70. Meanwhile, close friend Khalilul Rahman Abdul Samah described Nizar as a down-to-earth person. “He has good rapport with the people. I was with him once when he stopped by the roadside to help some stranger fix his car.” A potential political minefield Nizar is expected to announce his two deputies tomorrow prior to the swearing-in ceremony. Under the Perak constitution, there are 10 state exco members and one menteri besar. It is understood that the two deputy menteris besar would have to hold exco portfolios as well. Ngeh (right) told reporters that all three parties have in principle agreed that DAP would be holding the majority of exco positions as they command the largest number of state seats. “In a normal democratic process, we would be invited to head the state. But in the special circumstances of Perak and to be sensitive to Malay Muslims, Nizar was appointed mentri besar,” he said. Newly re-elected Pantai Remis DAP assembly person Nga Kor Ming, who accompanied Ngeh, expects mixed reactions from all political parties to the latest development. “But I stress that the appointment of the mentri besar is the prerogative of the sultan,” he said when asked if Nizar’s appointment would go down well with DAP supporters. DAP had vehemently rejected PAS’ conservative religious agenda in favour of a secular ‘Malaysian Malaysia’ and had even left the PAS-PKR Barisan Alternatif coalition in protest in 2001. With the appointment of a PAS mentri besar and DAP’s clout in the state exco, both DAP and PAS would be navigating through a political minefield due to their ideological differences and polar-opposite party make-up. However, with the swearing-in ceremony confirmed for tomorrow, Perak residents can now sigh a breath of relief in the midst of protracted speculations over the mentri besar post and the possibilities of DAP-PKR-PAS members crossing over to Barisan Nasional. In a sudden twist of event late this evening, DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang issued a statement saying that the party had rejected Nizar’s appointment as MB and that all party assemblypersons would boycott tomorrow’s ceremony.