Perak PR reps to go on hunger strike

PETALING JAYA, 21 May 2009: Pakatan Rakyat (PR)’s Perak assemblypersons will be taking turns to go on hunger strike starting 25 May until the state assembly is dissolved, Chinese news portal Merdeka Review reported today.

Sivakumar Embattled Perak Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin and Speaker V Sivakumar, both from PR, would be launching the “Mogok Lapar Bubar DUN” at the Perak DAP headquarters at 11am on 25 May.

Perak DAP executive-secretary Chris See told Merdeka Review, after the Court of Appeal hearing today, that the details of the strike would only be announced officially at a press conference tomorrow.

It was revealed that the decision to start the hunger strike was made in a meeting on 19 May.

All 28 PR assemblypersons in Perak would take part in the strike and there would be a ceramah every night.

PR also plans to invite the public to participate in the strike to call for the dissolution of the Perak assembly.

The Perak crisis was triggered by the desertion of three PR assemblypersons who opted to become Barisan Nasional (BN)-friendly independents, leading to the PR losing its majority in the state assembly in February.

Nizar Nizar was ousted after the BN’s Datuk Seri Zambry Abdul Kadir was sworn in as menteri besar on 6 Feb.

Nizar’s request to the sultan of Perak on 5 Feb to dissolve the state assembly to make way for snap polls was turned down. On 13 Feb, Nizar, 52, filed a judicial review and sought a declaration from the courts that he was at all material times the menteri besar of Perak. He also sought a declaration that Zambry had no right to hold the office of menteri besar.

On 11 May, High Court (Appellate and Special Powers Division) judge Datuk Abdul Aziz Abd Rahim ruled that Nizar was the rightful menteri besar.

But with the stay order on 12 May, Zambry reassumed the position of Perak menteri besar, and his appeal against the high court decision is currently being heard at the Court of Appeal.