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By Wong Choon Mei, Suara Keadilan BN Menteri Besar Zambry Kadir has tried to argue his way out of trouble, saying that in a democracy, the majority ruled.
He was referring to his coalition’s hold on 31 seats - 28 of its own and three belonging to Independents Hee Yit Foong, Mohd Osman Jailu and Jamaluddin Radzi. The Pakatan has the remaining 28 seats. “In the running of a democracy we cannot allow the tyranny of the minority to decide for the majority,” Zambry told reporters. But what he did not mention was that the status of three Independents are still being challenged in the courts. The trio were suspended for breaching House rules and while the Federal Court has been persuaded to give an interpretation that they should not have been suspended, it did not issue any order to lift the suspension. As such, the Pakatan deems that they are still suspended until further court clarification. Although Zambry spoke about “the majority rules”, he forgot to mention the storm of calls from the Perak people for fresh election. This clamouring for state-wide polls has been backed up by independent surveys that have been carried out. Avoiding fresh polls at all costs Zambry and his boss Prime Minister Najib Razak have resorted to all ways and means - fair or foul - to avoid polls as they have lost in four out of the past five by-elections. The general verdict amongst the public is that they will lose Perak if polls are called. Zambry, who led a revolt of the assembly when Sivakumar left the hall briefly to escort the Regent of Perak to the royal suite, also justified his act of pushing through a motion to remove Sivakumar as Speaker. “Sivakumar instead of asking the 10 to leave should have called for prayers and the royal address to start the assembly,” he said. However, the Pangkor MP sidestepped questions on why the sergeant-at-arms refused to respect Sivakumar’s authority as Speaker. Siva had asked security to remove Zambry and nine other disqualified assemblymen from the hall, but they refused to obey him. Zambry also tried to boomerang back the blame for instructing the secretariat staff to switch off Sivakumar’s microphone. “Every time I tried to speak they came over and tried to stop me. You are asking about the microphone being switched off when you should go back to the basic issue, the Speaker didn’t respect the court ruling,” dodged Zambry. Perhaps he didn’t realise it, but his answer was also a confession that he did order the secretariat staff to meddle with the Speaker’s powers. Zambry also conveniently forgot to mention that Sivakumar had clearly spelt out the reasons for asking him and his nine colleagues to leave. It was because their court cases were still pending and as such, their suspensions still valid. They had no right to enter the hall in the first place but again, security ignored Siva’s instructions to bar them. Zambry incurred notoriety last week when he tried to ban the press from covering the event. It has been widely expected that he would flout state rules in order to cling to power.
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