KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 19 — Stalemate or checkmate?
It is a question Malaysians are asking after the dramatic move by Perak Speaker V. Sivakumar to use his powers to suspend the BN Menteri Besar Datuk Zambry Abdul Kadir and his entire executive council yesterday.
The BN executive councillors are laughing it off as a childish prank while their lawyers are scrambling to read the constitution and find a way to basically stop Sivakumar and if possible remove him as speaker.
Pakatan Rakyat leaders, on the other hand, are claiming the constitutional crisis has worsened and it is time for the Sultan to call for a snap election and let the people decide and resolve the crisis.
With the public mood ugly, a snap election is the last thing that BN wants and therefore one is unlikely in the near future.
Neither is the BN going to sit and watch the crisis worsen by the day without a permanent solution.
While the PR thinks a permanent solution is a snap election, the BN thinks a permanent solution is the removal of Sivakumar.
Until he is removed the BN can never enjoy the state they have “rampas” by way of engineering defections of PR elected representatives.
For several weeks PR had debated long and hard how to get the upper hand even as Zambry was sworn in as menteri besar and one of the weapons they found was right there in the state constitution — the powers of the speaker.
Unlike other exco members the speaker is elected by the assembly itself and can only be removed by the assembly and not by the menteri besar or by the Sultan.
As long as Sivakumar remains speaker he is a formidable political rival and will not leave Zambry's administration in peace.
Now that Zambry and his executive council have been "suspended" for up to 18 months, it is left to the BN to decide how to respond.
They can either ignore the "suspension" and continue with their work or go to court for a declaration that the suspension was illegal and void.
But that does not solve the "problem of Sivakumar" as BN leaders are saying.
They cannot run an administration without getting full control of the state assembly and to do that they have to remove Sivakumar and the only way to do that is to call for an emergency session of the state assembly and use their majority to replace him.
This is a move fraught with dangers simply because they have to demonstrate publicly that they have a majority.
They have to get the consent of the Sultan to convene the assembly, set the agenda and table a motion to remove Sivakumar and appoint their own person.
Sivakumar can hamstring the BN at every step of this process, making it difficult and painful for the BN.
Even if the BN gets a declaration nullifying the suspension, the courts cannot interfere in the position of speaker which is sacrosanct.
The current life of the state legislature ends on May 14 and an assembly must be convened before that and the PR is toying with the idea of calling for one during the Umno elections in March, probably to further dramatise the crisis in Perak and embarrass the BN further.
The BN can also convene an assembly, if the Sultan consents, and with its majority remove Sivakumar and elect its man.
Irrespective of who convenes the assembly, PR sources said Sivakumar will not allow the three defectors, whose seats he had declared vacant, to enter the assembly.
He would also not let Zambry and his exco participate because they have been "suspended" for at least a year.
"Under these circumstances — even if the suspension is declared void — PR would have a majority minus the three defectors who are no longer assemblymen," said a top PR lawyer on condition of anonymity.
"It is a hung situation and the best way to resolve it is to have a snap election," he said. "All paths point to a snap election as the best solution."
Asked how Sivakumar would stop the defectors from taking their seats, the lawyer said Sivakumar would order the assembly's Sergeant-at-Arms to remove the defectors.
What if the Sergeant-at-Arms refuses to follow the order? "Well he has to follow. The speaker is his boss," the lawyer said.
The Sergeant-at-Arms, a post originating in England that dates back to 1415, is actually a serving policeman seconded to the House and his real boss is probably the OCPD of Ipoh.
A lot would depend on how he acts when the crisis climaxes.Considering these circumstances, the BN still has the upper hand in Perak but a stalemate situation is developing fast.
No checkmate yet.
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