By Delren Terrence Douglas
thenutgraph.com
SELANGOR Gerakan Youth is saddened by the turn of events in the state of Perak. In the lust for power, both the Barisan Nasional (BN) and Pakatan Rakyat (PR) have made a sham of the state assembly sitting and brought shame to the state and country.
All the squabbling over power has caused our politicians on both sides of the divide to lose focus on the economy.
In their zeal to be in power, both sides made decisions that were hasty and confusing to the rakyat of Perak. Instead of tackling the issues arising from the global economic crisis, the assemblypersons have been busy playing politics.
Although Gerakan Selangor Youth is part of the BN, we would like to reiterate that the only way to resolve the current situation in Perak is for the assembly to be dissolved and to allow the people to decide again who they want as their leaders. The crisis should not be prolonged but settled once and for all.
The people should be the ones to resolve the political impasse, not the courts or "frog" assemblypersons. It has been Gerakan's stand all along that it is unprincipled to allow party hopping as it causes political and economic instability, uncertainty, and makes a mockery of the people's right to choose their representative.
The BN made a major blunder when they rushed into taking over the state government of Perak. Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad is right when he stated that anything done in a rush would result in mistakes being made, and insofar the BN has made a few grave ones.
Among them include underestimating the role of the assembly speaker when the BN took control of the state; giving poor advice to the sultan, resulting in the installation of a new menteri besar without ensuring that the state constitution provisions are followed; and making a mockery of the state assembly rules and regulations in their haste to remove the speaker.
The Pakatan Rakyat, too, has made controversial decisions in their fight to remain in power. In this sense, the people of Perak should be applauded for maintaining their composure and letting the politicians fight it out. For one thing, PR leaders, Perak state assemblypersons and their supporters should not have shown disrespect to the Perak royalty, no matter how dissatisfied they are with the decision made by Sultan Azlan Shah.
Also, Speaker V Sivakumar for obvious reasons did not show impartiality and was not independent in his decision-making. The speaker also should not have overruled the courts by suspending BN-installed menteri besar Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir and his exco. The speaker may be in contempt of court by ignoring the Federal Court's ruling.
Ultimately, the three independent assemblypersons are the main cause of the political upheaval engulfing the state. It is unprincipled for the three to remain after they had signed resignation letters. Whether the letters were dated or undated upon signing does not matter.
The three have also made a mockery of democracy and have robbed the people within their constituency of their votes and shame the state of Perak. One cannot follow and support democracy only if it suits them and throw it away the moment it is detrimental to their cause.
Lastly, Gerakan Selangor Youth hopes cooler heads will prevail and let the people of Perak decide for themselves who they want for their leaders. Perak should not fall behind economically from the other states. BN leaders have to learn to accept defeat as much they dislike losing power. The choice the people make should be respected by all sides.
Delren Terrence Douglas
Gerakan Youth Information Bureau, Selangor
Parti Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia
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