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Gandhi, Mandela, King ... Zambry?

KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Dr Zambry Kadir invited scorn and ridicule today by invoking the name of Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi to describe his political challenges.

“Nelson Mandela sacrificed his freedom for 27 years to free the people of South African from apartheid.

“Mahatma Gandhi, on the other hand, sacrificed his life to ensure India’s independence," he wrote in a posting on his blog today.

He then went on to compare his endurance of what he said were the Pakatan Rakyat's (PR) politics of hatred to what the South African and the Indian icons of the struggle against oppressive regimes.

Zambry acknowledged, however, that his political struggles did not result in him suffering any physical harm or the loss of his liberty.

The Barisan Nasional (BN) man was appointed the mentri besar of Perak in February in a power grab which saw the downfall of the PR government, but yesterday a High Court decision declared his rival Datuk Seri Nizar Jamaluddin as the rightful chief executive of the state.

This morning, Zambry managed to obtain a stay from the Court of Appeal.

In his blog posting, Zambry also accused PR leaders of being greedy for power.

Besides Mandela and Gandhi, the BN man also borrowed the words of Martin Luther King, the American civil rights leader who was assassinated in the 1960s.

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.''

He claimed the negative perception of his leadership was spread by lies in opposition publications and Internet news websites.

Zambry said that despite the challenges he faced, he would continue fighting for “justice and the interest of the public”.

DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang said in a statement that Zambry’s comparison of himself to Gandhi and Mandela would cause “all round derision, outrage and revulsion.”

“If Zambry dreams of being a Gandhi, he would not want to be an illegitimate and unlawful mentri besar even for a second,” he said.

He said the stay given by the Court of Appeal today prevented Nizar from taking back what he claims is the PAS man’s legitimate position as MB, but did not overturn yesterday’s High Court declaration.

“Zambry went against everything Gandhi stood for in announcing that he would again 'gate-crash' the Perak state secretariat building tomorrow to 're-occupy' the MB’s office,” he said.

MI
12/05/09

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