Perak impasse moves to the courts

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 13 — Datuk Seri Nizar Jamaluddin's Pakatan Rakyat administration is naming newly sworn-in Perak Menteri Besar Datuk Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir as the sole defendant in a suit filed at the Kuala Lumpur High Court today to declare the Barisan Nasional government illegal.

Nizar is seeking to have his administration declared the legitimate government in Perak, and by naming only Zambry, his legal team appears to be targeting the new MB as a focal point in the power grab instead of the Perak Sultan.

When quizzed by reporters on why his suit did not name the Perak Ruler, Nizar brushed it aside, saying: "The question does not arise."

This strategy is designed to deflect attention from Sultan Azlan Shah, who has come under heavy criticisms for deciding to effectively dismiss Nizar, which is something some constitutional experts argues he does not have a right to do, and to appoint a new MB from BN.

Umno and BN are now attempting to galvanise Malay support in particular behind the Malay Rulers and to portray PR leaders as traitors.

At the Kuala Lumpur court complex here this morning, Nizar led a group of about 50 supporters in chants of "Hidup Rakyat" as he walked in to file the court case.

After filing it at the Special Powers and Appeals registrar at 11.35am, he led a group of PR lawmakers and supporters in a prayer from the top of the landing before proceeding to explain his suit.

The writ for a judicial review, he said, was based on Article 16 (6) of the Perak constitution and the circumstances where as MB he had requested and advised the Sultan to dissolve the assembly.

However, the dissolution did not materialise, neither was there a motion of no confidence in him in the assembly nor a voluntary resignation on his part.

Claiming that the office of the MB can only be vacated when one of the above had occurred, he stated that "all three do not exist, so my exco and I are the legitimate government and the false government established by Najib Altantuya must be declared illegal," referring to BN deputy chairman Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who had masterminded the takeover, and persistently linked to the murder of Mongolian beauty Altantuya Shariibuu.

"The truth has come and falsehood has vanished, verily falsehood by its nature is bound to perish," the Pas Pasir Panjang assemblyman then proclaimed, quoting out of Islamic scripture.

Nizar also said that his application would seek to declare that Zambry had no right to take the office of menteri besar and an injunction blocking him from acting in that capacity.

His application was also supported by affidavits from himself and Perak assembly Speaker V. Sivakumar stating that the three independent assemblymen, Jamaluddin Mohd Radzi, Osman Jailu and Hee Yit Foong, had resigned from their seats, leaving the assembly hung at 28 each.

Nizar insisted that even though they had "surrendered the vehicles, the office, the residence", it was not an act of "giving up or conceding".

"It does not affect our case," he stated, saying that as the rightful government, it was obeying orders from the secretariat under "the rule of law" and called on others to "obey the Perak constitution".

He added that the exco would continue their duties and that today they had to act in court due to the "insane actions of BN".