Perak power struggle – pause or game over?
THE people of Perak are waiting expectantly to cast their vote in the 13th general election for a very special reason.
Chen Shaua Fui, fz.com
The first shock for the people was when the Barisan Nasional (BN) state government fell in the 2008 general election for the first time since independence in 1957. Then, they had a second shock when the new Pakatan Rakyat state government fell in a dramatic tussle just one year later.
It was to escalate into a serious constitutional crisis involving the palace, Election Commission, courts, security forces and a very physical session in the state legislative assembly.
At the end of the turmoil, the BN took control of the state once again and the coalition has ruled for about four years since then.
But that was not the final word on the crisis. The ousted menteri besar Datuk Seri Nizar Jamaluddin mounted a series of court challenges to reclaim the seat of government. However, after a full year, the Federal Court ruled that the BN’s choice of menteri besar Datuk Seri Zambry Abdul Kadir was the rightful holder of the post.
The contest for control of the state erupted when three state assembly members, from the 32 that were from the Pakatan coalition, became BN-friendly independents thus changing the balance of power in the 59-member legislature.
Pakatan leaders stoutly maintained that the BN state government had no mandate to rule because they had not been voted in by the people. This was hotly debated at all levels of society, from the coffeeshops to cyberspace.
A common view was that the next general election would be a sort of referendum on whether the BN’s action to take control of the state has the support of the people.
Of course, this view is not uniformly heard among the voters. Among the Chinese, a frequently aired opinion at the time of the crisis was that the Pakatan government was denied justice.
This could be because the Chinese were among the direct beneficiaries of a number of policy changes adopted by the Pakatan government. In particular, the decision to award land titles to holders of temporary occupancy licences (TOL) generated much goodwill for the new government. This was especially because the Chinese living in New Villages had been pressing for permanent titles since before independence, with little success.
A veteran political observer, Chong Soo Choon, 67, a long-time columnist for a Chinese daily, who provided in-depth analysis during the Perak power struggle, endorses this observation.
“Until today, the Chinese community around Ipoh think that the Pakatan government was unjustly overthrown, and people still talk about it during tea sessions,” he said.
Chong, who lives in Ipoh, said that most of the Chinese he meets are of the opinion that if the Perak government had continued to be run by Pakatan, it would have performed on par with the Penang government and their living conditions could have improved as a result.
However, his ground observation shows that the Malays are split on this issue, with the older generation staunchly supporting the BN, and the younger generation rooting for change.
Undoubtedly, the BN government has tried to win back the people’s support with a series of public-oriented programmes. Last year, the Perak government had restructured its water assets to pay back its RM1 billion debts to the federal government. The state government managed to reduce its debt to RM326million.
Also, more than 8,000 acres of land were allocated to Chinese independent schools, religious schools and Tamil schools, so that revenue generated from the land would be used to fund the schools. The Chinese educationists welcomed the allocation as this was seen as systemic funding to the school.
A BN leader, who wished to remain unidentified, expressed confidence that the coalition will win in the next general election as it has been working very hard to serve the people.
“We have not been any less effective than the Pakatan government,” he told fz.com in a phone interview.
It is pertinent to ask whether voter sentiment about the change of government remains as strong today as it was during the period of political upheaval in 2009. This is especially because there have been a constant round of sensational political developments on the national stage in the intervening years, including allegations of grand corruption.
Feelings were certainly running high during the period of the political crisis. No one would have imagined that when Zambry was going to the Perak palace in Kuala Kangsar to be sworn in on Feb 6, 2009, he would be greeted by a boisterous protest of about a thousand people, mostly Malays, who were trying to block his motorcade.
However, as the BN state government settled into the job, the people became used to the new status quo and the Pakatan leaders decided to abide by the Federal court verdict in 2010.
