KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 6 — The Perak constitutional crisis tickled Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad's funny bone in his comments today about the latest shenanigans and its lessons for his one-time protege Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim while an unamused DAP strongman Lim Kit Siang asked the prime minister to support snap elections to end the political impasse.
In his chedet.cc weblog, Dr Mahathir said democracy allowed for a minority government, referring to Perak Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Mohd Nizar Jamaluddin's refusing a royal command to resign and make way for a Barisan Nasional government.
"But a minority government is weak. He can be toppled by a vote of no confidence by the majority in the state assembly if it convenes but maybe Pakatan won't want an assembly meeting," the former prime minister wrote, wondering who had a right to convene an assembly sitting and decide on the state leadership.
He warned that the opposition can do a lot to harm Perak if the minority government refused to convene the assembly.
"What can be done to a minority government if it remains and continues to harm the state? This situation is still vague as to my knowledge, there are no legal provisions for such situations," Dr Mahathir said, adding state officials might not follow orders although professionals must comply with instructions from a legally constituted government.
Saying that Malaysians can only watch the unfolding drama, the caustic politician pointed out that Anwar can take lessons from the drama.
"He is the one that really wanted the biggest party hopping on Sept 16. Oh! Mistake, Sept 24. Oh! A mistake again," Dr Mahathir wrote with glee about his protege-turned-nemesis whom he sacked in 1998.
He said he was tickled to hear Anwar's reaction to Bota assemblyman Datuk Nasharudin Hashim's double party-hopping in and out of Parti Keadilan Rakyat.
"Jumping in is okay but jumping out is not legal. Hee, hee, hee!" he wrote in ending his post.
But Lim remained unamused about the Perak crisis where his party had held 18 seats until Jelapang assemblywoman Hee Yit Foong quit to turn independent two days ago.
He said Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi should support the dissolution of the Perak State Assembly and have snap polls to resolve the political crisis in Perak and "resolve the political crisis in Perak and not to end his premiership with a constitutional scandal of two menteris besar in Perak”.
"Even if this is the only legacy of Abdullah in his five-year premiership, it will go a long way to strike a mortal blow at the bane of Malaysian politics — dishonest, unethical, immoral and money politics," the Ipoh Timur MP said in a statement.
He also called on Abdullah to advise his deputy Datuk Seri Najib Razak "not to create a constitutional scandal of having two menteris besar in Perak and to fully respect the constitutional process and the people's democratic right and mandate as expressed in last year's general election".
"The most democratic option is to return the mandate to the voters of Perak in a state-wide election to elect a new state government of their choice," Lim said.-The Malaysian Insider
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