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
perak guy says
Yes, learn to accept defeat and for once, learn how to be a constructive opposition.
goldenscreen says
One hopes that Delren Terrence Douglas can tell his boss Koh Tsu Koon to tell that directly to his boss Najib Tun Razak. Tell Najib Tun Razak that he was wrong in enticing the two corruption-tainted frogs. Tell Najib Tun Razak that he was wrong in accepting Hee Yit Foong.
Tell Najib Tun Razak that he was wrong when he was grinning from ear to ear a few months ago, announcing the coup against Perak state government. Tell Pandikar Amin Mulia to be more partial in his decisions as Speaker of Parliament. If you cannot even ensure your Speaker is partial, who are you to tick off the other side’s Speaker?
And please get your facts right Delren. It was not Sivakumar who suspended Zambry and his exco for impersonating the state government (a very serious offense mind you). It was the Rights and Privileges Committee that suspended them. Sivakumar is only the head of the Committee.
And don’t come and pontificate that you are now supporting dissolving the state assembly, when it has been Pakatan Rakyat’s stand from Day One of the crisis. Everybody knew it would come to this stage including Ku Li. So, what took you so long in stating your stand? Like four months late?
I guess if Pakatan had quietly admitted defeat to the illegal coup then your party Gerakan would be all too willing to legitimise the illegitimate and share in the spoils of your joint plunder.
johnny soo says
Please return back to rakyat. We want to decide the next rightful MB. BN, show us that you have guts.
Jason says
You are right. Dissolve the assembly and have a fresh election let the people to decide. Why the BN “kiao shu”? Both side should have equal chance to get the Perak people’s (voters’) support. Why is BN so scared to fight? What’s so wrong with BN? Good luck BN. Already 50 years in power, what to be scared of?
raguel says
PM should be grateful to Gerakan youths who talk much sense. Hope their message will awaken the cloudy minds of parties in tussle for power regardless of their noble ideals or otherwise. Maybe the powers have a hidden agenda not to have fresh elections, which we can’t fathom. Instead of focusing on the economy, much time, effort and resources are wasted for nothing, absolutely nothing but stagnation.
Confusion, retaliation.
Ipoh_mali says
BN does *not* have the gut to ask for a snap election! They know for sure that BN will be wiped out 59-0, rest assured, BN, if not now then in GE13, BN will be history.
siew eng says
This is a convenient lumping of “both sides at fault”. There *was* governance. The elected Pakatan Rakyat government was making people-centric policies instead of implementing crony-enriching ones. But they were interrupted by the crude takeover of the state (btw, for those who continually harp on who started the idea, be assured that after BN’s actual action, demonstrating wonderfully the woeful consequences, there’s now no support for party-hopping without fresh elections for the constituencies concerned – which wasn’t how Pakatan had planned it anyway).
statistician says
Deiren – I salute your statement:-
[The people should be the ones to resolve the political impasse, not the courts or “frog” assemblypersons.]
Three frogs destroy Silverland Rakyat wellbeing – economic, stress, image, judiciary.
I am glad at least there are a few ‘gold nuggets’ like you, KuLi, ChuaSL to salvage from that pile of mess.
Eric says
Kudos to Gerakan on this brave act.
1BLACK Malaysia. Democracy first. Elections now.
sumandak says
Kudos Delren, very brave of you and Selangor Gerakan Youth. I had also read your letter in The Star way back in March on the same stand that you have voiced out. Not many in BN dare to voice out against Umno or BN as a whole. But people like you within BN are a rarity.
vp says
I am Perakian and stay in Johor. I’m ready to go back to Perak for elections. If Zambry dares to call for election, I respect him. But, I will not vote him.
Kenny Gan says
I laud Delren for calling for fresh elections but his saying that Pakatan is fighting to remain in power is totally off the mark. PR is fighting not to stay in power but for power to be returned to the people to select the govt they want. As soon as the High Court named Nizar the rightful MB, he sought an audience with the ruler to dissolve the assembly.
Also speaker Sivakumar does not have to follow the declaration of the court with regards to the MB and his exco as the judiciary is beyond the court’s jurisdiction. To underscore this, the state constitution expressly protects him from any court action for any proceeding in the Assembly.
The power of the speaker was given by BN to be used against opposition politicians. Little did they know that it would be used against them one day. And that day has come.
However, the voices of Gerakan and other component parties are inaudible to Umno. This comes from a wholly unequal relationship in which power sharing is bogus and one party controls everything.
Delren Terrence Douglas, Gerakan Youth Information Bureau, Selangor says
Firstly, I am pleased that The Nut Graph allows freedom of expression on its site. That is what democracy is all about.
To GoldenScreen, there are many within Gerakan party who have voiced out all along from Day One to let the people of Perak decide for themselves after the cross over of the three frogs. In fact, Gerakan will NOT accept any of them into our party.
In Selangor alone, we have so many differing views from members and all views have to be respected. But from the very beginning Gerakan Youth Selangor has been consistent that we want the state assembly to be dissolved. If BN loses, so be it.
So, it was not a four-month delay as claimed.
But as you can see the mainstream media has been reluctant to print Gerakan Selangor Youth’s stand (except for The Star on 6/3/09), and there are those higher echelon leaders like Teng Hock Nan who openly voiced out the same but is condemned by other BN leaders.
Yet, I will not leave Gerakan nor the many countless Gerakan members who believe in fighting for a better Malaysia from within BN.
I did not join Gerakan to gain monetary rewards. I joined Gerakan because I believed back then that BN was not doing many things the right way and the only way to correct it was to join a BN component party and voice the people’s rights from within. We may be few in numbers but we are sure our voices are heard, more so during Pak Lah’s time.
We all want a better Malaysia, one may strive for a better Malaysia by joining the PR parties or one can still do so by joining BN as long as not to fall into the trap of lusting for power and rewards. So, be it PR or BN, as long as you are justly voicing the voice of the people, we are still one and on the same side.
It saddens me that I am condemned first just for being a BN party member and not for my actions or deeds.
Whenever anyone asked me, why do I join politics and my answer has always been the same and consistent for the last 22 years – I joined and serve for King and Country.
Thus, I would like to emphasise again that the only way to solve the current problem is for the state government to be dissolved and the rights of the people upheld.