Nizar says the battle for Perak is still on. — File pic
IPOH, Jan 1 — If 2009 was a chaotic year for Perak’s political scene, then 2010 looks set to be just the same or maybe even worse.
The ousted Pakatan Rakyat (PR) administration is not about to slacken its grasp of the rope in the tug-of-war tussle for Perak.
The captain who once helmed the PR team in government, Datuk Seri Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin, said yesterday Pakatan never backs down from a fight and, if anything, was ever ready to flex its muscles and tug even harder on its end.
The purpose, he stressed however, was not just to win back Perak.
“What we want now is the same as what we always wanted and what we will always have strength to fight for — that the rights of the people to choose their own government are returned.
“We are not greedy for power and we are not fighting to win back the government. We just want the people's rights returned and we are willing to struggle every step of the way for this,” he said emphatically.
He admitted that this stubbornness would result in more “state assembly fracas" and schedules packed with political dinners and ceramahs but said that this was “unavoidable”.
“Yes, we will be faced with a scenario of a police state again. We will see all this happening.
“But this is because they (the Barisan Nasional government) are illegitimate and we cannot recognise them. So yes, their illegitimate Speaker Datuk R. Ganesan will again summon an assembly sitting, and again we cannot recognise this,” he said.
The Bukit Gantang parliamentarian, however, added that he was not foolish enough to not recognise that support for the PR was waning as many felt that it was time for the tripartite coalition to quit fighting losing battles and start serving the people.
He said that the PR would always proceed with caution into every battle for "we do not want the world to laugh at us".
“Certainly, we are aware of this and of course we will work for the people. Things will be readjusted according to the situation but that does not mean that we will stop fighting,” he said.
Nizar said that for 2010, the Perak PR would re-engineer its efforts to tighten the relationship among the three coalition partners — DAP, PKR and PAS.
“In unity, we will find our strength. What we will look at now is to focus on tightening our bond through common policies especially in all our constituencies.
“For example, we are also looking at developing our women's wing,” he said.
He noted confidently that in time, the people would recognise the glaring differences between the rights PR was fighting for and the wrongs BN was committing.
“I do appeal, however, to the people not to lose hope or to lose faith in us. Do not overreact to certain situations and do not be so easily fooled into believing the BN's propaganda.
“Keep up your support for us,” he said.
Nizar promised that in return, the PR would always continue to act in the best interests of the people and stick to its promises of fairness and justice.
To the BN, Nizar said: “Behave professionally. In the coming age of intelligence, the people are no longer so easily fooled. They cannot be used as they have been before. Scrap all forms of racism in your political ideology or face rejection.”
The former mentri besar seems unfazed that since the power grab in February last year, the BN has been gunning towards becoming more people-friendly and in return, talk is rife that it has done well to win the hearts of the people.
During the previous state assembly sitting, BN assemblymen sat prettily in their places at the state assembly hall and chose not to be affected by the PR's loud shouts and table-banging.
In recent days, issues raised by PR's non-Muslim representatives also seem to have set off a sense of discomfort among the Muslim constituents in Perak. This little detail may work very well in BN's favour.
One BN state executive councillor, Mohammad Zahir Abdul Khalid, told The Malaysian Insider recently that Umno's best ploy now was simply to focus on solving local issues.
“To the people, they do not need representatives who are only here to raise issues and fight verbal wars.
“The layman on the street just wants his livelihood protected. His main concerns are local problems, like issues of welfare aid or simply about public facilities.
"If we keep doing our work for the people, I believe that we can win in the next general election,” he said.
The Kamunting assemblyman, whose state constituency is just neighbours with Nizar's Bukit Gantang parliamentary constituency, noted that because of his dedication to solving local issues, many constituents from PR-helmed areas were coming to him for help.
“I am not bad-mouthing them — they have some representatives who are good at serving the people but there are those who are just there to raise issues. This is not what the people want,” he said.
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