Sultan did the right thing, says AG

By Neville Spykerman - The Malaysian Insider

PUTRAJAYA, May 21 — By his own admission, Datuk Seri Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin knew he had lost the majority in the legislature when he asked the Perak Sultan to dissolve the state assembly on February 4, the Attorney-General said today.

Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail told the Court of Appeal here that even if the three independents who had thrown their support behind Barisan Nasional (BN) were excluded Nizar would have lost any vote of confidence.

Although both Pakatan Rakyat (PR) and BN would have an equal number of 28 lawmakers in the assembly, Speaker V.Sivakumar would not have been able to vote, he said.

Gani was making his submission today in the appeal brought by BN’s Datuk Zambry Abd Kadir against a recent Kuala Lumpur High Court ruling declaring PR’s Nizar as the rightful mentri besar of Perak.

The Attorney General who is acting as case intervener also defended the role of the state legal advisor who had been accused of acting in favour of Zambry.

He said the state legal advisor was a government servant who is neutral but caught between “two elephants,” referring to Nizar and the Sultan.

He added the situation could have been avoided if Nizar had called for a sitting instead of going to the Sultan to seek fresh elections, which was rejected.

He said Nizar should have done the honourable thing and resigned rather than letting the state go into disarray.

He also defended the move by the Sultan to ask Nizar to resign adding it was against democracy to allow for a minority government.

Earlier Datuk Cecil Abraham, acting for Zambry, also argued it was not necessary for the Perak ruler to wait for an outcome of a motion of no confidence to determine if Nizar had lost the support of his fellow lawmakers in the state assembly.

He said the rulers could use other means, which in this case was the interviewing of the three independents along with the 28 BN assemblyman on February 5 to determine which leader had the support of the majority.

He added that Nizar’s claim of using Article 36 of the Perak Constitution to seek the dissolution a day earlier could not be supported by evidence.