Of rightful, stay, no stay, and circus of Perak

ARCHIVES 2009

By admin-s On May 13, 2009

By AirKosong

Yesterday, sadly, Malaysians are the most divided lots. Depending on which newspapers/news outlets they access, they would have quite significantly different ideas about the latest development in Perak.

In an unusually speedy, one-judge panel decision, the Court of Appeal granted stay of execution to Zambry. I am not a lawyer, but I am fortunate enough to have a few friends who are either lawyers or law professor. The CoA decision is a temporary remedy to the KL High Court decision yesterday, which declared Nizar as the rightful menteri besar. It is NOT a reversal of that decision. The stay of execution merely delays the effect of that decision.

The truth remains that, Nizar is the rightful menteri besar as decided by Justice Abdul Aziz, which deliberated in detail all the submissions from both sides. The CoA judge Ramly did not do that. Not yet. He only considered the special circumstances as submitted by Zambry lawyer for a stay order. An actual appeal process, which can take much longer, will deliberate in detail later.

In other words, as long as Zambry does not get a reversal of that high court decision from any of the superior courts, i.e. Court of Appeal and Federal Court, he is found to be illegimate. But because he got the stay order, he will continue to go into the menteri besar office. In the mean time, Nizar, who was declared the rightful menteri besar, is still the rightful menteri besar of Perak, as long as that decision is not reversed.

Now let’s look at various news headlines. They range from the “stay” specific headline, to the extreme of implying Zambry won his appeal, which is definitely far from truth.