That plaque must go, says Ipoh council

The Ipoh City Councilhas ordered the demolition of a marble plaque erected by the Pakatan Rakyat opposition assemblymen to mark the controversial state assembly emergency sitting on March 3.

A notice on the demolition of the marble slab structure under a raintree dubbed the "Tree of Democracy" by the opposition was pasted on the tree on Friday.

The notice, signed by the council legal adviser on behalf of Ipoh mayor, said the owner of the structure had contravened the Road, Drainage and Building Act as it was built without permission and was deemed an obstruction in a public area.

The council ordered the structure, unveiled by former Perak menteri besar Datuk Seri Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin, near the State Secretariat building last Sunday, to be demolished within 24 hours.

Vandals had smashed the plaque and poured tar over it, defacing the inscription of the "historic" event, Perak DAP secretary Nga Kor Ming said at a news conference here.

He said a closed-circuit television monitor captured the images of a man who had broken the plaque with a hammer on Friday morning.

"DAP Youth will hand over the CCTV footage to the police on Monday." — Bernama