Cool customer: Nizar attempted to report for work in a hugely symbolic gesture that raised his profile and won him new admirers Photo courtesy of Wartawan Rasmi Laman Reformasi; More pictures here
IPOH, Perak, Feb 10 (IPS) - During a tense press conference, in the midst of the current constitutional crisis in this state, peninsualar Malaysia's second largest, a reporter's MP3 recorder/handphone began ringing.
The embattled chief minister Mohd Nizar Jamaluddin asked the reporter to pick up the phone and pretended to answer it. "Hello? Oh it's Barack Obama, thank you, thank you, thanks for your support. I appreciate that, Mr President. I think you are wonderful."
The reporters burst out laughing.
Nizar's relaxed demeanour belies a steely determination as he engages in a battle of wills that has pitted him against the country's Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak and the monarch of Perak, Sultan Azlan Shah.
A member of the Islamic Party, PAS, one of three parties in the Pakatan Rakyat (PR or People's Alliance) coalition, Nizar has quickly won widespread admiration that cuts across ethnicity and religious lines for his open and non-racial approach and his fiscal discipline in managing the state's budget.
Dramatic scenes unfolded last week as a series of defections among state assembly members from the coalition government that Nizar leads threw the state into political turmoil.
The federal ruling coalition, the Barisan Nasional (BN) or National Front, has been attempting to dislodge the PR coalition government that has led Perak since last March's general election with support from the Sultan.
On Tuesday the BN, led by Zambry Abdul Kadir, began the process of forming a new government with the PR continuing to challenge its legitimacy.
When Nizar, accompanied by his state executive council members went to the state secretariat, in a business as usual way, he found his path barred by riot police.
Nizar has so far refused to resign as chief minister and the Sultan has turned down his advise that the state assembly be dissolved and fresh elections called to resolve the impasse. Nizar has maintained that the BN government is illegal and that the Sultan has no constitutional right to dismiss him.
Sentiment on the ground can be gauged form the fact that last week, as Zambry was being sworn it at the state palace, about 5,000 worshippers outside a mosque 300 metres away blocked the road to the palace and demanded that the state assembly be first dissolved and fresh elections called.
The crisis was triggered when three state assembly members, two of them facing corruption charges, defected from the PR, overturning the state government's slim majority. A fourth assembly member had earlier defected from the BN to the PR but later hopped back to the BN.
With that, the current status of the house is 28 PR members, 28 BN members - and three independents, who are pro-BN. On Thursday, the Sultan of Perak, the constitutional monarch, consented to the appointment of a new BN government after he was convinced the BN had the majority in the state assembly.
The crux of the matter appears to be: who decides whether a chief minister commands the confidence of the majority of the state assembly members, the sultan or the state assembly?
The PR supporters are insisting that the constitutional position is that Nizar can only step down if he resigns or if he ceases to command the confidence of the majority of the assembly, at a proper sitting of the state assembly.
Before that can happen, many argued, the status of the defectors has to be determined, as they had signed undated resignation letters after the last general election. The Speaker of the Assembly, a PR appointee, had used these letters to declare their seats vacant.
But the Election Commission has refused to recognise the letters and to hold by-elections. The Commission's head pointed out that the defectors have now denied the validity of their earlier letters.
Critics, however, argue that the Commission has no power to dispute the Speaker's decision; only the courts can overturn the Speaker's decision.
Nizar and his state government committee members, for their part, are insisting they remain the legitimate government and this morning they held an executive committee meeting.
To add to the complication, those who disagree or protest the Sultan's move are at risk of finding themselves described as menghina (showing no respect) or worse, derhaka (traitorous) to the Sultan. The sultan, a former Agong (or constitutional monarch for the whole country) who once served as chief justice, this year celebrates the silver jubilee of his reign in Perak.
As riot police fired tear gas at determined and angry protesters outside the mosque on the road to the palace, one furious man told IPS: "Please tell the people that the MB (chief minister) is not derhaka against the sultan. Nizar is trying to defend the administration of the state from corruption in the people's interest."
Behind the legal technicalities, the current impasse reflects a larger battle for political control of Malaysia. Perak, along with Selangor, Penang, Kedah and Kelantan had fallen to the PR in the last general election.
Following the setback for the BN, leaders of the dominant United Malay National Organisation (UMNO) thrashed out a transition agreement to phase out Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi by March to be succeeded by his deputy Najib, who has also assumed Abdullah's finance ministry portfolio.
But Najib's star has failed to shine brightly. He has been persistently linked to the murder of a Mongolian national, for which a court trial is ongoing - although he has vehemently denied any involvement in the case.
Since the general election last March, Najib has led two key by-election campaigns for the BN - and lost them both.
Delivering Perak to the BN would go some way in appeasing restive UMNO members still coming to terms with last year's general election shock of losing the coalition's coveted two thirds parliamentary majority and five out of 13 states in the federation.
"What this shows to me, is that the new prime minister in waiting, Najib, is getting increasingly desperate and might resort to Machiavellian methods (to secure his position)," says blogger and analyst Din Merican, aligned to the PR.
Many Malaysians are unhappy about the spate of defections to the BN and have dubbed the defectors as "frogs". BN supporters on the other hand are quick to point out that PR supporters did not seem to mind when it was PR leader Anwar Ibrahim who was trying - unsuccessfully - to seize federal power last September by trying to get BN parliamentarians to defect to his fold.
But many are not surprised that the BN is reluctant to hold fresh elections in Perak to resolve this issue once and for all.
As a result of frequent excesses and allegations of abuse of power, the BN has seen its public support steadily erode since 2003, when premier Abdullah scored a landslide victory after his predecessor Mahathir Mohamad stepped down.
A common sentiment by a phone-in viewer said during a forum televised over Bernama television channel. "BN may think they have won the crisis in Perak but don't they realise in the next general election, many more people will be voting for the opposition?"
For now both Nizar, who is still holding on to the chief minister's official residence, where hundreds of supporters have been gathering every night, and the BN are engaged in a battle of wills.
While BN may have won this round its troubles are far from over as the party faces two tough by-elections and Nizar may opt to stand for one of these and win a seat to parliament.
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