A Black Malaysia Day: Perak A Failed State
It appears both the police and the state secretariat officers are colluding with the politicians to complete the power grab in the state. Again the people of Perak are the biggest losers.
By Gavin Khoo, Suara Keadilan
In Ipoh this morning, the BN has pulled out the last stop to complete the power grab in Perak. Many of us surely can’t help but feel confused about the rule of law and separation of powers in this country.
In this incident, it appears that a state assembly Speaker is not that commanding after all. Perak Speaker Sivakumar was even booted out of his own assembly. A vote was hastily taken to appoint a BN representative to helm the seat.
It appears both the police and the state secretariat officers are colluding with the politicians to complete the power grab in the state. Again the people of Perak are the biggest losers. The political battle to control the state assembly is done without much consideration of the people’s interest.
The Perak democratic crisis has shown that it is a failed state. A caring and responsible coalition would have anticipated that a rule without the majority support of the people cannot be carried out smoothly.
It is a distaste to know that parties and stakeholders claiming the higher moral ground are oblivious to what has happened in the state and have ignored the repercussion, negative impact and psychological scarce faced by the people in Perak.
Whatever publicity or rebranding initiative done by the PM’s team of experts will not be able to erase this negative impact of the power grab. The power grab, a very hasty decision as Mahathir put it, will come back to haunt the BN coalition in the next general election.
No wonder, many expired politicians are eating back their words by accepting important positions in the government. Perhaps knowing that their career will not last beyond the 13th general election.
It is the middle ground, a growing community of fair minded, critical and moderate Malaysians that political parties need to court to stay in power. BN does not seem to be interested in securing the middle ground.
Too bad, but I am sure many of us are now seriously considering participating directly in the political process.
It is important for the new coalition, PR, to guarantee the people that they will not go the similar way in the future. Anwar’s Sept 16 ambition for a change in government through defections had damaged slightly the reputation of his coalition. Unfortunately, this and the Bota assemblyman’s flip-flop were used by the BN to justify this power grab.
What a shame!
[Gavin Khoo Kay Peng is an economics graduate from the University of Malaya and also has a master's degree in International Relations from University of Warwick, UK. He is now a corporate consultant and an independent political analyst]
