High drama, violence & 'pokok demokrasi' - Malaysiakini

The vicinity of the Perak state secretariat building today was gripped with high drama for about four hours as Pakatan Rakyat tried to convene an emergency state assembly sitting.

MCPX

From the wee hours, police have been manning roadblocks leading to both the front and rear entrance to the building, where the state assembly is housed.

Rush hour traffic was brought to a crawl and students were seen running to a nearby school as their parents could only drop them at a roadblock.

Other than the heavy police presence, little was out of the ordinary until a group of some 30 burly men started to shout profanities at some 100 Pakatan supporters gathered near the state secretariat building.

The Pakatan supporters backed off slightly, but that didn’t stop the group of aggressive men, though vastly outnumbered, from shouting profanities.

Things took a turn for the worse when ousted Menteri Besar Mohd Nizar Jamaluddin and his 27 state reps arrived at about 9.30am and tried to enter the state secretariat building.

The group of 30 men formed a human shield blocking the state reps. A shouting and shoving match ensued in full view of the police who did nothing to intervene.

Howls of protests were heard from the Pakatan supporters at the police inaction and apparent inability to be neutral.

Following this, several state reps manage to slip past the unruly group and attempted to negotiate with Ipoh police chief Azizman Alias but it was in vain.

Surrounded by a large group of baton-wielding riot police, the state reps relented and backed off to a nearby carpark.

As the state reps gathered around three cars to hold an impromptu meeting, Pakatan bodyguards formed a large circle before the state assembly speaker, V Sivakumar, emerge from one of the cars to loud cheers from the Pakatan supporters.

He began to put on his ceremonial robes and declared that the emergency sitting was now in session, under a large raintree, which some Pakatan supporters have dubbed “pokok demokrasi”.

The emotional crowd of Pakatan supporters could do little to hold back their applause and cheers each time a motion was passed followed by loud calls of “setuju! (aye!)”.

The world is watching!

This led to some better informed Pakatan supporters to yell out: “Dalam dewan tak boleh tepuk! (No clapping in the assembly).”

In a short span of about 15 minutes, it was all over. Pakatan’s 27 state reps (the speaker cannot vote) had passed a vote of confidence for Mohd Nizar as the legitimate menteri besar.

The second resolution was for Mohd Nizar to seek consent for the dissolution of the state assembly from the sultan.

The third resolution was on the adoption of the privilege committee’s report on the suspension of newly-appointed Menteri Besar Zamrby Abd Kadir and his six exco members from the state assembly.

Pakatan leaders were quickly rushed to the nearby DAP headquarters where a press conference was held by Mohd Nizar to explain the resolutions passed during the sitting.

Outside the building, some 300 Pakatan supporters had converged to hear a series of speeches by Pakatan MPs from other states.

“The world is watching!” declared Titiwangsa MP Dr Lo’ Lo’ Ghazali as the crowd cheered on, punctuated by cries of “Hidup Rakyat” and “Hidup Pakatan”.

“BN wants to stop the emergency sitting because they fear a snap election is looming,” declared another speaker and Kuala Krai MP Dr Hatta Ramli.

As the eager crowd listened to the speeches, little did they know that the group of unruly men who tried to block Mohd Nizar earlier had converged in a nearby coffeeshop.

Suddenly, at about 11am, one of the men at the coffeeshop pelted a projectile into the crowd, causing some members of the crowd to rush to the scene in an attempt to apprehend the assailant.

A short melee ensued. Bottles were broken, presumably to be used as weapons, while one of the unruly men tried to hit Pakatan supporters with a chair.

One of the unruly men was also heard screaming: “Ini tanah Melayu!”

Even though hundreds of police personnel were nearby, guarding the state secretariat building, none came to stop the scene from turning ugly.

Police report lodged

In the end, several Pakatan leaders arrived at the scene to order Pakatan supporters to disperse, but this did not stop some of the unruly men from shouting profanities at Pakatan supporters while displaying lewd hand gestures.

There were no reports of any injuries during the fracas but there were a bit of glass shards on the floor of the coffeeshop with some damaged signages and broken flower pots.

At 3pm, two Pakatan assemblypersons - Khalil Idham Lim (Titi Serong) and Nga Kor Ming (Pantai Remis) - made a police report over this morning's incident.

The report said that both Ipoh police chief Azisman Alias and state secretary Abdul Rahman Hashim have committed a criminal offence by barring the elected representatives from the state assembly building.