Zambry appoints three advisors

(Updated 12.43pm)

11 Feb 09 : 11.14AM

By Deborah Loh
deborahloh@thenutgraph.com

Updated on 11 Feb 2009 at 12.43pm

Protesters gathered in front of the MB's residence a few days ago (File pic)

IPOH, 11 Feb 2009: Newly-appointed Perak Menteri Besar Datuk Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir has appointed three advisors to assist him in running the Barisan Nasional (BN)-led state government.

Speaking at a press conference after he and his newly-appointed state executive council (exco) members reported for work at the state secretariat building at 10am this morning, Zambry said the three advisors would have the same status as exco members.

They are (Rtd) Capt Datuk Najmuddin Elias Al-Hafiz who will assist the menteri besar in religious matters; Datuk Chang Ko Youn who will be advisor on Chinese Malaysian affairs; and Datuk S Veerasingam who will be the special advisor for Indian Malaysian community affairs.

Najmuddin was the political secretary to former Perak Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Mohd Tajol Rosli Ghazali and is the Batu Kurau assemblyperson. Chang is Gerakan deputy president and Perak Gerakan chief while Veerasingam is MIC vice-president.

Veerasingam's appointment is seen as the solution to the lack of Indian Malaysian representation in the Perak BN government.

"This ends the issue of there being no Indian [Malaysian] elected representative," Veerasingam said.

Additionally, Zambry appointed Datuk Hamdi Abu Bakar as the state information chief. Hamdi is responsible for disseminating information from the state to citizens.

In an immediate response, embattled Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin said the appointment of Chang and Veerasingam as advisors with exco standing was illegal and an abuse of power and public funds because they were not elected representatives.

"The Perak state constitution also does not provide for such appointments," he said.

Portfolios

Zambry also confirmed the portfolios for himself and the six exco members who were sworn in yesterday before Perak Ruler, Sultan Azlan Shah.

They are as follows:

Zambry - housing, planning, economy, finance, safety, land, resources, agriculture and religion

Mohd Zahir Abdul Khalid — education, higher education, science and technology

Zainol Fadzi Paharudin — art, culture, youth and sport

Datuk Ramly Zahari — infrastructure, public amenities, water and energy

Dr Mah Hang Soon — health, local government, consumer affairs, environment, public transport and non-Muslim affairs

Hamidah Osman — industry, investments, entrepreneur development, ICT, tourism and women affairs

Datuk Saarani Mohamad — rural development, poverty eradication, commodities and welfare

The six exco who were sworn in yesterday were four shy of the ten exco positions that were filled up under the Pakatan Rakyat. Hence, Zambry's appointment of advisors is seen as a way to shore up his administration.

No emergency sitting

Zambry deflected questions about whether he would call for an emergency sitting of the state assembly so that a vote could be taken to determine who had the most support of the house, hence ending the political impasse.

"Under the law, we only have to convene the state assembly six months from the previous one," he said.

That means the state assembly will next meet in April.

Chang was, however, more direct. "Why should we do that (call for an emergency sitting)? Why should we take a vote? Nizar is already out (because the Sultan has already decided)."

On 7 Feb, state assembly Speaker V Sivakumar, from the DAP, submitted two letters to Sultan Azlan Shah seeking permission to convene an emergency sitting so that the house could show through a vote who it most supported.

It is, however, unlikely that the Sultan will now grant that request.

To another question about whether the BN government would continue the policies of the Pakatan Rakyat government, Zambry said: "It was Pakatan Rakyat who continued BN policies when they took over (after the March 2008 elections)."

Jeopardising the nation

10 Feb 09 : 6.00AM

By Clive Kessler
editor@thenutgraph.com

"All great historical events happen twice — the first time as tragedy
and the second, at times, as an unnecessary tragedy."
(A witticism offered with apologies to both Hegel and Marx)

WHATEVER the impertinence, a comment by a not totally clueless outsider who holds Malaysia close in his attachments on the present constitutional crisis in Perak and its national political implications may prove useful and instructive.

Tough legal questions have been raised already with no simple answers. They are questions that serious Malaysian citizens are worried, and have the right to be concerned, about. I am too. Those questions need not be repeated here.

If I were the Sultan

Instead I shall compound my impertinence. Were I, however improbably, to have found myself in the position of the Sultan of Perak on 5 Feb 2009, I would have been strongly tempted — in good conscience and out of an impeccable sense of duty and for the best possible reasons — to have acted just as he did.

But I pray I would have resisted that temptation. I hope that, however tricky that different course might prove in the immediate and short term, I would have allowed the fate of a democratically elected government, under a system of constitutional monarchy, to be decided by the people in one of two ways.

Either on the floor of the people's house by their own recently elected representatives, or else, if for some reason that was not feasible or acceptable, at an election that might explicitly test public opinion on the question. That way, the newly elected house, whether controlled by the Barisan Nasional or the Pakatan Rakyat, would authoritatively be that of the people's, with whom modern democratic sovereignty originates.

Whether, as Ruler, I might have forced some resolution of the question on the floor of the house or acceded to the menteri besar's request for a dissolution and new elections, the prospect in either case would have been one of an immediately heightened political temperature.

Either course would soon have seen mass public demonstrations of allegiance on both sides and, in their train, huge potential problems in maintaining civil peace and public order. That much is undeniable.

Any conscientious ruler or head of state would have to be deeply concerned at such a prospect.

Gathering at the menteri besar's residence in Perak, 5 Feb 2009

As for the former option, I may be among the few surviving attentive witnesses to a similar episode long ago: the so-called "20 Aug 1968" peristiwa in Kelantan. Then, some half dozen or more PAS state assemblypersons were to have defected and sided with Umno at a sitting of the state assembly in the old Balai Besar in the palace precinct in Kota Baru. It did not happen.

The PAS government of Kelantan was not toppled. The frogs did not jump. They stayed under the sheltering tempurung of the party in whose name they had been elected.

But I still recall the very tense and at times frightening atmosphere as I travelled by motorcycle, through police and army roadblocks, the 25 miles from Bachok to Kota Baru and the roiling, ever-growing crowds that, along with me, were converging ominously there on that fateful morning.

These are not matters to be trifled with nor risks to be taken lightly — least of all by a constitutional head of state with a proper sense of public responsibility and duty. So avoiding that fearful possibility would have been a great temptation, and a not ignoble one. But it is a temptation that I hope I might have resisted. Why?

Learning from Australia

In Australia in 1975, the Governor-General Sir John Kerr chose to act similarly in a similar situation. He insisted on exercising his personal discretion that, as he understood the situation, his constitutional "reserve powers" entitled him to wield. He dismissed a government that arguably still had a majority within the people's elected house of parliament.

The result was unfortunate, to say the least. It poisoned Australian politics, public culture, and (dare one say it?) the very soul of the nation for a generation. Its effects have not fully worn off away even now.

Malaysia could now be at risk of a similar outcome. I hope not but fear so.

John Kerr (top), Gough Whitlam (bottom left) and Malcolm Fraser
(Sources: Kerr – naa.gov.au; Whitlam, Fraser – public domain/
Wikipedia)

For that reason, a test in the state assembly or snap polls would have been preferable whatever the costs and however messy the shorter-term practicalities of maintaining public order. As a matter of long-term public and national policy, that would have been better than a measure that substituted something else for the verdict of popular will.

In Australia it is now widely recognised that, if the government was not to have fallen on its own, it should not have been peremptorily dismissed. And if it was doomed to fall, as well it may have been, it should have been allowed to do so in the natural course of democratic events, through democratic processes. The impatience to force the issue may have saved a few days or weeks of delay but it plagued the nation with its consequences for thirty years until the matter began to be put decently to rest.

It was not a good deal. Not for anyone. Not for the ousted Prime Minister Gough Whitlam. Not for his successor Malcolm Fraser who never overcame the "legitimacy deficit" that his manner of coming to power caused him. Not for Kerr who went into exile and died amidst widespread ignominy and contempt. Not for Australia, which was made to live for a generation under the shadow of what was widely seen as a quasi- or pseudo-constitutionalist coup against constitutionalism. And not, therefore, for constitutional principle and process itself.

That is an outcome and fate that Malaysia, I hope, will avoid. The lesson is there already to be learnt from others. The same price need not be paid again.

Malaysia these days has other urgent needs and priorities. It does not need, now to be paid exorbitantly on its own account, this distraction or these afflictions. The lesson is available free, there to be taken "ready off-the-shelf", from Canberra.

Former Lord President Tun Mohamed Suffian Hashim repeatedly insisted in his foundational written texts that in Malaysia, the constitution and nothing but the constitution is "the supreme law of the land". Malaysia cannot afford to see constitutional principles imperilled, and constitutional processes jeopardised — not even out of an understandable impatience, or a conscientious determination, to see the urgent political and practical problems of the day speedily resolved.

---

Clive S Kessler is Emeritus Professor of Sociology and Anthropology at the School of Social Science and International Studies at the University of New South Wales in Australia.

Hon iringi sokongan kepada Nizar

Feb 5, 09 10:19am

kemaskini 11.50pm Dari jam 10 malam hingga saat ini, kenderaan yang bertali arus di depan kediaman rasmi menteri besar terus-menerus membunyi hon selama hampir dua jam - dipercayai menyatakan sokongan kepada Datuk Seri Mohamad Nizar Jamaluddin. Ribuan orang masih berkumpul di tepi-tepi jalan di luar kediaman tersebut dan sehingga kini tiada tanda-tanda mereka akan bersurai. kemaskini 11.00pm Ceramah berakhir secara aman dengan bacaan doa. Menteri besar Pakatan itu berucap, sementara beberapa pemimpin atasan gabungan itu tidak berceramah. Orang ramai diseru bersolat Jumaat esok di Masjid Ubudiah di Kuala Kangsar. kemaskini 10.45pm Datuk Seri Mohamad Nizar Jamaluddin berkata beliau dan Adun Pakatan Rakyat akan memulaukan majlis angkat sumpah menteri besar baru Perak, Datuk Dr Zambry Abd Kadir esok walaupun mereka juga diundang. Tambahnya, Pakatan Rakyat tidak akan mengiktiraf sama sekali kerajaan baru BN dan akan terus membantahnya bersama rakyat di seluruh negeri. Kira-kira 6,000 orang berada di kediaman rasmi itu. kemaskini 9.16pm Kira-kira 2,000 orang berhimpun di kediaman rasmi menteri besar Perak, menyatakan sokongan kepada Datuk Seri Mohamad Nizar Jamaluddin. Mereka melaungkan "reformasi", "jatuh BN" dan "hidup rakyat" sementara menunggu ucapan para pemimpin Pakatan Rakyat mulai jam 10 malam ini. Mesyuarat barisan pemimpin atasan gabungan pembangkang itu petang tadi memutuskan untuk mempertahankan jawatan menteri besar itu. kemaskini 8.45pm Tokoh lama Umno, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah menyifatkan perkembangan krisis peralihan kuasa kepada BN di Perak kini sebagai "babak-babak yang memalukan." Menulis di blog peribadinya awal malam ini, ahli parlimen Gua Musang berkata hanya ada dua cara untuk menguji sokongan terhadap kerajaan Pakatan Rakyat itu - pillihanraya negeri atau usul tidak percaya di Dewan Undangan Negeri (DUN). "Menjatuhkan dan menaikkan sesuatu kerajaan dengan cara-cara lain adalah bertentangan dengan Perlembagaan, menghakis kedaulatan undang-undang dan membawa risiko membentuk sebuah kerajaan yang tidak sah," katanya. kemaskini 8pm Ahli Dewan Undangan Negeri (Adun) Pangkur, Datuk Dr Zambry Abd Kadir, 47, telah dipilih sebagai menteri besar baru Perak. Pengumuman itu dibuat oleh Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi malam ini, sejurus tiba dari Perak i Pangkalan Tentera Udara Diraja Malaysia (TUDM), Subang. Dr Zambry yang juga ketua Umno bahagian Lumut itu memang disebut-sebut bakal dipilih sebagai pengganti Datuk Seri Mohamad Nizar Jamaluddin kerana ketokohannya serta taraf pendidikan tinggi yang dimilikinya. Berkelulusan PhD dalam bidang politik, beliau sebelum ini pensyarah di Universiti Islam Antarabangsa (UIA). Dr Zambry - yang pernah ditahan bawah Akta Keselamatan Negeri (ISA) dalam krisis susulan pemecatan Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim pada 1998 - dijadual mengangkat sumpah di Istana Iskandariah jam 3.30 petang esok. Perdana menteri berkata, Sultan Azlan Shah telah memperkenan pemilihan ambry sebagai Menteri Besar. Barisan exconya akan mengangkat sumpah Selasa depan. kemaskini 7.50pm Kira-kira 1,000 penyokong Pakatan Rakyat berkumpul di kediaman rasmi menteri besar Perak. Lebih ramai sedang menuju ke situ, mencetuskan kesesakan lalu lintas sekitar kawasan terbabit. Walaupun polis memberikan amaran tegas, tidak kelihatan anggota-anggota pasukan itu kecuali bahagian trafik untuk melancarkan kesesakan jalan raya. Kediaman rasmi Datuk Seri Mohamad Nizar Jamaluddin dikawal ketat oleh petugas-petugas Unit Amal PAS. Beberapa pemimpin atasan gabungan pembangkang termasuk Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim dijangka menyampaikan ucapan mereka di situ. kemaskini 6.26pm Perdana menteri Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi meninggalkan Istana Kinta jam 6.15 petang. Difahamkan majlis angkat sumpah menteri besar BN dan barisan exconya akan berlangsung esok. Sumber pemimpin-pemimpin Pakatan Rakyat yang sedang berkubu di kediaman rasmi menteri besar menyatakan, mereka tetap mengadakan perhimpunan besar di lokasi tersebut mulai 7 malam ini seperti dirancang walaupun diberikan amaran oleh polis. Ketua Polis Negara, Tan Sri Musa Hassan tengah hari ini berkata polis tidak akan bertolak ansur terhadap mereka yang mengadakan sebarang perhimpunan di negeri itu. kemaskini 6.13pm Datuk Seri Mohamad Nizar Jamaluddin mengutuskan surat rasmi kepada istana Perak, menjelaskan sebab beliau tidak melepaskan jawatan sebagai menteri besar Perak. Beliau juga menjelaskan barisan pemimpin Pakatan Rakyat "sebulat suara" meminta beliau tidak meletakkan jawatan sehingga krisis sekarang "diputuskan oleh mahkamah atau Dewan Undangan Negeri." kemaskini 5.52pm Perdana menteri tiba di Istana Kinta, Ipoh jam 5.50 petang, dipercayai untuk majlis angkat sumpah menteri besar baru dan pembentukan kerajaan baru BN. kemaskini 5.01pm Perdana menteri dijangka tiba di Istana Kinta, Ipoh tidak lama lagi, dipercayai untuk majlis angkat sumpah menteri besar baru. Timbalan perdana menteri, yang juga ketua perhubungan Umno negeri, dan barisan wakil rakyat BN dilaporkan sudah berada di istana berkenaan. kemaskini 4.55pm Polis telah mengepung bangunan pentadbiran kerajaan Perak, dan mengarahkan semua exco Pakatan Rakyat serta para pembantu mereka meninggalkan bangunan tersebut. kemaskini 4.50pm Kepimpinan tertinggi Pakatan Rakyat menyokong penuh Datuk Seri Mohamad Nizar Jamaluddin sebagai menteri besar . Mereka juga meminta supaya pilihanraya baru diadakan untuk mengesahkan mandat baru daripada rakyat. Ketua Pembangkang, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim berkata mereka akan memohon untuk menghadap Sultan Perak berhubung isu tersebut. Setakat ini, semua pimpinan tertinggi Pakatan berkubu di kediaman menteri besar, dengan harapan semakin ramai penyokong hadir menyatakan sokongan padu kepada Mohamad Nizar. Pakatan juga akan menganjurkan satu perhimpunan besar di kediaman menteri besar seawal 7 malam ini. kemaskini 4.40pm Datuk Seri Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin memberitahu satu sidang akhbar bahawa beliau tidak akan meletak jawatan sebagai menteri besar. Beliau menggesa rakyat supaya menyokong kerajaan Pakatan. Beliau juga berkata, Speaker DUN telah memfailkan kes di mahkamah berhubung kesahihan surat peletakan jawatan bekas Adun-adun Pakatan yang keluar parti. Menurutnya, adalah wajar untuk menunggu mahkamah memutuskan kes tersebut. Oleh itu, katanya, majoriti BN (sekarang) mungkin tidak sah. "Kita tidak menolak titah Sultan, cuma kita merayu Sultan (agar) mengikut ketetapan dalam Perlembagaan dan Undang-Undang Tubuh Kerajaan Negeri Perak," katanya. Mohammad Nizar berkata bahawa semasa menghadap Sultan Azlan Shah, beliau dititahkan supaya meletak jawatan dan baginda juga tidak memperkenankan pembubaran Dewan Undangan Negeri, lapor Bernama. "Saya dengan rendah hati mohon derhaka dengan berkata kepada baginda 'patik sebagai MB dan pemimpin kerajaan, mohon tidak letak jawatan'," katanya. kemaskini 4.05pm Setiausaha kerajaan negeri Perak, Datuk Dr Abdul Rahman Hashim telah mengarahkan Menteri Besar, Datuk Seri Mohamad Nizar Jamaluddin dan semua anggota exconya supaya mengosongkan pejabat masing-masing dengan segera. Mereka juga diarahkan supaya memulangkan semua aset kerajaan negeri, termasuk kunci pejabat dan menyerahkan kenderaan rasmi dengan segera. Mereka juga dilarang memindahkan sebarang dokumen dari bilik masing-masing. kemaskini 3.28pm Speaker DUN V Sivakumar mendakwa dipujuk menyertai BN dengan sejumlah wang dan jawatan penting peringkat negeri dalam MIC. Lobi agar mereka meninggalkan Pakatan Rakyat bermula sejak selepas pilihanraya umum Mac tahun lepas. kemaskini 3.20pm Pemimpin-pemimpin atasan ketiga-tiga parti Pakatan Rakyat berada di dalam kediaman rasmi menteri besar Perak. Datuk Seri Nizar Jamaluddin - yang diarahkan meletakkan jawatan serta-merta bersama barisan exconya - dijangka mengadakan sidang media tidak lama lagi. Difahamkan beliau akan mengumumkan enggan melepaskan jawatannya itu. Suasana di luar kediaman itu kelihatan tenang dengan sekumpulan kecil penyokong dan wartawan. Kira-kira 30 anggota Unit Amal PAS mengawal kediaman tersebut. Tiada anggota polis berpakaian seragam kelihatan. kemaskini 2.33pm Sultan Perak Sultan Azlan Shah tidak perkenan dewan undangan negeri dibubarkan, demikian menurut kenyataan Pejabat Sultan Perak hari ini. Baginda juga menitahkan Datuk Seri Nizar Jamaluddin meletak jawatan sebagai menteri besar Perak berkuatkuasa serta-merta dan jika tidak, jawatan itu dianggap dikosongkan. kemaskini 2.14pm Tempat perhimpunan 100,000 orang untuk menyokong kerajaan Pakatan Rakyat telah dipindahkan dari kediaman menteri besar ke Stadium Ipoh. kemaskini 2pm Ketua umum PKR Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim tiba di kediaman Menteri Besar, Datuk Seri Nizar Jamaluddin. Beliau dijadual mengadakan sidang akhbar bersama menteri besar dan Lim Kit Siang pada 3 petang. Naib presiden PKR, Azmin Ali turut hadir. kemaskini 1:33pm Difahamkan Datuk Seri Mohamad Nizar Jamaluddin enggan melepaskan jawatannya selepas menghadap Sultan Perak kira-kira jam 1 tengah hari tadi. Malaysiakini difahamkan DUN Perak tidak akan dibubarkan. Keputusan lanjut kedudukan beliau dan kerajaan Pakatan Rakyat di Perak belum jelas. kemaskini 1:30pm Datuk Seri Mohamad Nizar Jamaluddin meninggalkan istana Kinta jam 1.05 tengah hari tadi selepas menghadap Sultan Perak 15 minit kemudiannya. Menteri besar itu bersama Setiausaha Agung DAP Lim Kit Siang dan ketua umum PKR Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim dijadual mengadakan sidang media jam 3 petang. kemaskini 1:26pm Datuk Seri Najib Razak tidak mengadakan sidang media selepas bermesyuarat dengan badan perhubungan Umno negeri di pejabatnya di Ipoh. Beliau kelihatan masuk sejurus selepas tengah hari ini. kemaskini 11:54pm Semua 28 Ahli Dewan Undangan Negeri (Adun) Perak serta tiga Adun Bebas hari ini menghadap Sultan Perak untuk membuat pengakuan yang mereka menyokong Barisan Nasional, kata Datuk Seri Najib Razak. Timbalan perdana menteri berkata kesemua mereka turut memberi pengakuan menyokong calon menteri besar baru yang akan dikemukakan oleh BN. "Tuanku dijangka akan membuat keputusan sama ada bubar Dewan Undangan Negeri Perak atau meminta Menteri Besar Datuk Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin meletak jawatan dengan secepat mungkin," katanya pada sidang akhbar selepas menghadap Sultan Perak kali kedua di Istana Kinta. kemaskini 11:48pm Menteri Besar Perak dipanggil menghadap Sultan menjelang tengah hari ini, dipercayai berkaitan penyerahan kuasa kepada BN untuk pembentukan kerajaan baru. Datuk Seri Mohamad Nizar Jamaluddin meninggalkan satu majlis bersama Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi di Bagan Serai pada kira-kira 11.40 pagi tadi. kemaskini 11:00pm Timbalan Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak memasuki Istana Kinta pada jam 9.50 pagi tadi untuk mengadap dan mendapat perkenan Sultan Azlan Shah untuk Barisan Nasional (BN) menubuhkan kerajaan baru di Perak. Beliau yang juga pengerusi Badan Perhubungan Umno Perak diiringi oleh Menteri di Jabatan Perdana Menteri, Datuk Ahmad Hamidi Hamid. Ahmad Zahid merupakan timbalan pengerusi badan perhubungan Umno Perak. Najib meninggalkan istana pada jam 10.35 pagi, dan sambil tersenyum, melambaikan tangan kepada wartawan tanpa berhenti di pintu masuk istana. Bagaimanapun, beliau kembali semula ke Istana Kinta dengan empat wakil rakyat yang keluar Pakatan Rakyat semalam - Ahli Dewan Undangan Negeri (Adun) Behrang, Jamaluddin Mohd Radzi, Mohd Osman Jailu (Changkat Jering), Hee Yit Foong (Jelapang) dan Datuk Nasaruddin Hashim (Bota) - untuk mengadap baginda pada jam 10.55 pagi ini. Semalam, Najib mengumumkan bahawa BN negeri cukup majoriti untuk membentuk kerajaan baru selepas empat Adun berkenaan menyokong BN secara terbuka. Berikutan perkembangan tersebut, BN kini mempunyai 28 kerusi di Dewan Undangan Negeri (DUN) Perak, Pakatan juga 28 dengan tiga bekas Adun PKR dan DAP yang kini wakil rakyat bebas yang telah menyatakan sokongan kepada BN. 'Situasi tidak menentu' Manakala Adun Bota, Nasarudin - yang mengumumkan melompat kepada PKR selama 10 hari - kembali semula kepada Umno dan memberi sokongan kepada kerajaan BN negeri. Selepas mengadap Sultan Perak, Najib akan mempengerusikan mesyuarat badan perhubungan Umno negeri. Agenda utama mesyuarat tersebut dijangka adalah mengenai pemilihan calon untuk jawatan menteri besar yang baru. Sebelum ini, Najib telah membatalkan satu majlisnya di Putrajaya pagi ini untuk berlepas ke Perak untuk mengadap Sultan Azlan Shah.

REHMAN RASHID: An ill wind blows no one any good

By : Rehman Rashid

2009/01/25

THERE's so much ballyhoo about this "swing away from Barisan Nasional", there should be a yodelling Tarzan in a leopard-skin loincloth at the end of it. Allow me.

While Pas itself has behaved with a dignified reserve befitting a by-election victory by a margin as slender as BN's in the last general election, the oppositionist media have proclaimed another nail in the coffin of the BN in general and Umno in particular, and are training their sights on a possible by-election in Sabah and state elections in Sarawak, due within two years.

And why not? After their amazing gains of the past year, this is the time to indulge in their fondest dreams.

They're different dreams, but that's what keeps Malaysian politics so endlessly fascinating.

For instance, Pas must find it tantalising now to foresee a near future in which it commands the state governments coast-to-coast across the northern half of the peninsula, from the Straits of Malacca to the South China Sea -- a sort of "Pasistan", as it were, fed by the ricefields of the west and fuelled by the oil and gas of the east.
Pas administrations would oversee the entire length of the border with Thailand, portending changes in the bilateral relationship with the contiguous southern Thai provinces of Satun, Songkhla, Yala and Narathiwat.

The natural osmosis between the two Muslim-majority, ancestrally linked regions might facilitate cooperation of a different order from that so cautiously explored in the Indonesia-Malaysia-Thailand Growth Triangle concept.

But the existing IMT-GT mechanisms could be useful nonetheless, in creating a formidable Islamic economic region braced between Buddhist Thailand in the north and, off its southwest coast, the People's Socialist Republic of Penang.

Penang under DAP will always cultivate cordial relations with Pasistan, because it needs Kedah's water.

Kedah, meanwhile, stands to benefit from Penang's development as a business and tourism hub. (Although at some stage it might want a low-cost carrier terminal of its own too; wouldn't everyone?)

Friendly diplomacy should ensure that Penang's socio-economic and cultural preferences need not fear the looming Islamic entity on its mainland, any more than Singapore ever had to fear the rest of us.

After all, it's been widely noted that non-Muslims no longer "fear" Islamic hudud laws, as they now understand that syariah applies only to Muslims and will have no effect on them.

To be sure, there are certain other prescriptions of Islamic governance that may -- provisions regarding the administration of non-Muslim minorities in Islamic states, for instance -- but such considerations would come much further in the future, if at all, and should still be negotiable in the proper multicultural Malaysian spirit.

Besides, Penang need not be as alone as Singapore was -- the former Straits Settlements and erstwhile colonial centres of Ipoh, Kuala Lumpur and Malacca are also well within DAP's dreaming range. The party is legatee of urban politics stretching back nearly a century, after all.

PKR, however, may have a destiny right out of Joseph Conrad.

The party has been making quite a meal of its promising prospects in Sabah and, particularly, Sarawak. After the non-event of Sept 16 last year, even greater expectations are rising over Malaysian Borneo -- not least because there are grounds for them.

PKR has declared Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim its liaison chief for Sabah and Sarawak, buoyed by the turnouts Anwar enjoyed at test-the-waters events in Miri, Sibu and Kuching this past year.

The entry into PKR of independent Sarawak state assemblyman Gabriel Adit Demong along with nearly 12,000 supporters last November indicated significant sympathy for the opposition, especially among the 28 of Sarawak's 71 state constituencies belonging to indigenous minorities.

Enough of them crossing over -- or losing to PKR candidates in elections -- would enshrine Sarawak among the states to which Anwar would most owe a debt of gratitude.

PKR may also dream of sufficient support in the Malay areas of the peninsula south of Pasistan, and among the aracial intelligentsia, for its Pakatan Rakyat partners to grant it nominal leadership of a federal government (albeit one of diminished national authority).

But it will owe such deference to its traction in Sabah and Sarawak, which will come from Anwar's pledges being read there as promissory notes for greater autonomy and control of natural resources, and the revenues accruing therefrom.

With Pasistan in the north, Dapistan in the west and Sabah and Sarawak dusting off their 20-point agreements, back at the BN fort, the MIC, shunned at the polls and despised by swathes of the Indian Malaysian community, is reduced to a constituency unto itself.

Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu continues to deal with dissent by purging dissenters, thereby ensuring ever-increasing numbers of dissenting Indians outside the MIC, running ever-decreasing circles around it.

The MCA, however, survives. Even if defrocked as the cardinal embodiment of the Chinese Malaysian community, the MCA will nonetheless broker for it.

The good old Towkay's Party is nothing if not learned in the Art of the Deal -- imperious in power, a comprador otherwise.

And Umno, in the fondest dreams of those looking to Pakatan Rakyat to bring about these changes, will balik kampung to Johor, perhaps to run that state, Iskandar Malaysia, the Customs, Immigration and Quarantine complex and Singapore relations.

Now, none of the foregoing is necessarily a prophecy of doom. Those who would consider this scenario alarming, if not downright disastrous, might take solace in knowing that a near-equal number of Malaysians might not have any problem with it -- indeed, some might even consider this an outcome to be hoped and prayed for.

It bears no resemblance to the only nation we've ever been, but who's to say that's a bad thing? When unity is gone, spin divergence as diversity. When continuity is not an option, stasis is suicide.

To quote my brother Rafique in his song of that title, though: "Do it right, do it well, 'cos if you don't it'll hurt like hell."

ZUBAIDAH ABU BAKAR: Power to rule in the hands of young voters

2009/01/23

Zubaidah Abu Bakar

Malaysia's young voters appear to be getting impatient with what they perceive as Barisan Nasional's reluctance and resistance to change, writes ZUBAIDAH ABU BAKAR

WHEN Malaysia holds its 13th general election, in 2013 at the latest, the balance between victory and defeat will hinge on younger voters.

This opinionated group will determine whether or not Barisan Nasional stays in power. And BN should be worried, as young voters have sent a clear message -- not just once but three times in the last 10 months -- that they will only support a political party that shares their aspirations.

Weakened by the March 2008 general election, the Umno-led BN badly needs to secure the votes of young voters, whose numbers are expected to reach six million by the next general election. The biggest headache for Umno and BN is that the majority of young people have grievances with either or both of them, and if this is not remedied within the next few years, the next election results could be even worse.

Based on the country's present birth rate, with 450,000 to 500,000 babies born annually, two million more young Malaysians will reach 21 and be eligible to vote in the next general election.
The power of the young will be further reinforced by four million eligible voters, many under 30, who did not register in time for the 2008 elections.

If all two million youngsters choose to register, the eligible voter population in the country will be 16.9 million, including the 10.9 million currently registered.

This means young voters will hold the power to instigate change, and they can demand that their voices be heard. Ignoring them could spell disaster, as younger voters in the 12th general election and two subsequent by-elections leaned towards the opposition, especially in urban areas.

An analysis of the March 2008 general election results shows that many newly-registered voters and those below 30 supported Parti Keadilan Rakyat, Pas and DAP candidates; all three, to their credit, are ahead of BN in warming to young voters.

Opposition candidates got their messages across through social networking tools on the Internet and mobile phones, while BN relied mostly on newspapers and the broadcast media.

A bitter pill for BN was seeing young voters it ferried back in buses to Kelantan from the Klang Valley, not only voting for the opposition but also persuading their relatives and peers to do so.

In the Aug 26 Permatang Pauh by-election, more than 90 per cent of voters under 30 voted for Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

One key reason for this was young Internet-savvy voters obtaining their news chiefly from the pro-opposition alternative media, which they perceive as more credible than the mainstream media.

In the recently-concluded Kuala Terengganu by-election, which BN lost, detailed voting data indicated that the ruling coalition had again lost most support from among those under 35.

Political apathy among youth is long gone. The young are aware of what is happening around them and have varied reasons to vote for the opposition.

BN's disconnect from young people is most alarming in the case of urban professionals, who no longer believe that the ruling coalition is capable of making a better Malaysia.

Non-Malays cannot accept the New Economic Policy, considering it as benefiting only the Malays, while young educated Malays concerned with good governance, human rights and democratic ideals view Umno and BN as corrupt.

Several political analysts think that youngsters tend to favour the opposition because they have more liberal views of democracy, with less preference for race-based politics, which explains the appeal of multiracial PKR.

Young people also do not feel indebted to the government that achieved independence half a century ago. BN leaders should realise by now that campaigning on the basis of track records, especially after Kuala Terengganu, no longer works with younger voters.

There has been no attempt to draw up a plan for Umno or BN to win over young voters since the March 8 electoral setback, despite many politicians talking about getting closer to this group.

It has been suggested that BN field more politicians in their 30s and 40s in the next general election, in the hope that these young leaders can speak the language of young people and connect with them.

The recent United States presidential elections, where more than 63 per cent of young voters backed 47-year-old Barack Obama, is testimony of how young people want leaders to whom they can relate.

According to a Gallup poll in October, even before the polls, young Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 favoured Obama over John McCain by a huge margin of 59 per cent to 38 per cent.

In the Malaysian context, BN leaders need not comprise entirely of the young; older politicians, if they are able to embrace "young people things" and understand their needs and aspirations, are still needed for their wisdom and experience.

What matters to most young people are the two Es: engagement and empowerment. BN needs to engage and give them the recognition they deserve, and help nurture them to explore and expand their potential.

It needs to accept and fulfil sincerely their wish to have a say in the economy and governance.

In trying to reinvent and revitalise, prescriptions for BN to undertake "wholesale reform", "sweeping change" and "fresh initiatives" should be seriously considered.

The focus should be on the economy, political stability, freedom of education, job opportunities and social problems, which are the main issues for youth. Managing the economy will be the key over the next three years, as the economic downturn will affect their job opportunities.

The uphill battle for BN is to rid Umno of its rent-seeking image and hold its own against the attacks of the alternative media, and for all component parties to find new ways and means to engage young people.