Anwar’s Storming of the Bastille in Perak?

Things are getting uglier in Perak. Thousands took to the streets. The people are angry. They are protesting at what they perceived as a serious travesty of justice. The PKR government in Perak has been toppled. You can read it in the media. It is laid out in more detail in the new media- which is what the internet is known.

There were scenes of people being set upon with teargas. The police came down hard on the people. It was helter skelter. The police made some arrests. As the demonstrations took place after the Friday payers, most of those arrested were Malays. That would add another dimension to Malaysian politics.

Why must we resort to the streets? This isn't the storming of the Bastille and Anwar Ibrahim, the unseen instigator is not a Robespierre. This isn't a popular uprising against the monarchy. This is just a desperate putsch by Anwar and his gang to force the issue by confronting the Palace. The Perak Palace had made a decision which wasn't liked by Anwar and Nizar. But we know Anwar has the ability to transform what is localised issue in the sense that it affects PR and PKR into an issue of looming catastrophe.

We have said, that the manner in which the state government fell was quite extraordinary. In a democracy a government is displaced through popular elections. This manner is in keeping with the practice of democracy. But the Perak government has been brought down because it does not have the majority. He lost the majority because members of his party defected. A leader of the party which does not have command of the majority must resign. As to this aspect of the political mess, I am sure I will be writing more.

For the moment though, I think we must clear on two things. Setting a government and appointment of head of the government are two different things. A government is formed through elections. The party which wins majority seats is invited to form a government. The party with the majority then nominates a person as leader. That leader can be assumed to command the confidence of the majority. In Malaysia, since it is assumed that majority speaks with one voice, the person nominated as leader is assumed to get unanimous approval from his party. The party can submit several names in fact to the King for assent. The king has the prerogative to choose which particular one. That should have been obvious. Idris Jusoh was earlier on chosen to be the Terengganu MB, but was rejected by the Sultan. Mat Said was then nominated and received the King's consent. The right of fire and hire lies with the King.

When a government ceases to command the majority seats, it has to resign. That is also a practice of democracy. The leader of the party which forms the government goes before the monarch, to tender resignation of his government. That will allow the party which commands the majority to form the new government.

The PR government was made up of PKR, DAP and PAS. Together they had 31 members. Now, 3 of them had deserted the PR government leaving the party with 28 members. Who now has the majority? It is still not fully settled yet.

The BN has 28 members. Without the 3 who deserted the PR, it too cannot form a government. As of now they have not joined the BN formally. Joining the BN government is, however a foregone conclusion. In the interim, they say, they support the BN government, thus effectively giving the BN another 3 seats. The BN can therefore say, it now has the majority in the state assembly. That gives it the right to form the government. It then submits a name which they think commands the confidence of the party to become MB. The decision to accept who becomes the MB lies exclusively with the King of the state.

The cardinal principle is you must have a majority. Without this, your standing becomes untenable. You have no alternative but to tender resignation. Nizar doesn't seem to understand this. When he sought an audience with the Perak king, he no longer has majority. It was a case of being too late.

I am not sure, with that, he can even seek dissolution of the state assembly. But if he seeks dissolution when the Bota man and the two PKR wakil rakyats were MIA and the deputy speaker was in seclusion, the PR was still technically the majority. I am very sorry to say this, bur Nizar was technically an incompetent politician. Possibly people of good and righteous upbringing plus being yet unschooled in the art of realpolitik, he has no stomach for Machiavellian politics.

But at that time, if he had gone to the King and requested a dissolution, he could have succeeded. And you know what, if he had gone to the hustings, UMNO would be decimated in Perak.

He should have read the situation in his party carefully. If he had done so, his request for dissolution would have been tenable. Once he loses majority, the only option opened to him was to offer resignation not dissolution.

And so his heroic defiance now is exceeded only by his stupidity. The right thing to do was to seek resignation. Asking for dissolution when you don't command the majority can only be interpreted as an attempt of saving your own self. You want to ring the bell in order to save the situation.

But I want to discuss a disturbing trend. I don't know whether in Malaysia, we have laws pertaining to lese majeste- or injuring the dignity of the King. In Thailand, a person was tried for this offence for not standing in a cinema when the royal song was aired. Here it now seems, Malaysians have lost their restraint and respect for the king. I read with disgust and shame the various e mail messages that roundly condemned Sultan Azlan Shah. If the trend continues, it will be no longer be the person of HRH the Sultan that is being mauled here. Soon it will turn to the very symbol of the Malay being.

The outpourings of open defiance are directed, as it were, at the Perak Royal House. This is a first in Malaysian history. There has never been open defiance such as this. The previous constitutional crisis involving the clash between the Monarchy and the elected government was a controlled and regulated affair. It never spilled into wanton disorder as it does now.

The real perpetrator and chief instigator, Anwar Ibrahim, lurks in the background. He is the principal agent provocateur. HRH Sultan Azlan Shah has already decided that the Dewan Undangan Negeri Perak not be dissolved. That decision must be respected. Yet, Anwar Ibrahim sees it fit to mobilise thousands to express, what essentially is defiance to the Sultan. That must qualify as a treasonable offence.