Zambry confident ‘people will come to their senses’

Zambry is aware that public sentiment is against him. — Picture by Choo Choy May

By Shannon Teoh | Malaysianinsider

IPOH, Feb 21 — Acknowledging that there is negative sentiment against him from the ground, Perak Menteri Besar Datuk Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir has lashed out at Pakatan Rakyat for "poisoning the minds of the people".

But the Pangkor assemblyman, who has been in power for just over two weeks, is confident that "the people will come to their senses" after assessing the situation objectively.

He said this to The Malaysian Insider in an exclusive interview yesterday when pressed on whether snap elections would present a clear picture of who Perakians wanted in government following the Feb 5 power grab by Barisan Nasional.

It has led to a constitutional crisis and an impasse that many say can only be resolved by going to the polls but Zambry insists that the call by PR to dissolve the assembly only begun after it realised that BN had the majority.

"I do not think snap polls will solve the matter at this juncture. The way they have gone to the ground and created tension has created a volatile situation," he said, citing the episode when protestors laid down in front of the palace in Kuala Kangsar in an attempt to block his swearing in as menteri besar.

"I do understand the feeling on the ground. But I think people will come to their senses because this is due to them poisoning the minds of the people so they seem to be slanting towards them," he insisted.

Zambry questioned why his predecessor Datuk Seri Nizar Jamaluddin had not wanted to dissolve the assembly right from the start.

"He said in the beginning, why should we dissolve? If you feel that people support you when you are menteri besar, then you do it. When you have lost your office, then you go around making demands," he said.

Zambry added that PR's stand that it is not up to the Sultan to appoint a menteri besar betrayed a duplicity.

"They were fighting among themselves to see who would be menteri besar, but then agreed that Tuanku would pick, so they knew that the power of appointment lies with the Sultan," he said.

Zambry further added that at that point, PR assemblymen each went to commit to the coalition before the Ruler and BN had done the same, and not just by BN deputy chairman Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who masterminded the takeover, claiming he had the majority.

Referring to the situation after the March 8 general election last year, he said that as BN had 28 assemblymen, it could have been allowed to form a minority government as DAP had only 18 members, PKR, seven, and Pas, six.

He claimed that the Sultan could have allowed for a floor test period, a convention in certain legislative bodies, whereby parties could try to form a coalition with the most number of seats.

Zambry said that this clearly disproved the belief that Sultan Azlan Shah was in favour of an Umno-led government.

"If the Sultan was behind us, we would have been given this floor test period. But in his fairness, Tuanku told us that PR had 31, so they would form government," he said.

The menteri besar also stood by his view that PR was committing "derhaka" or treason towards the crown.

"It is real derhaka. You may argue that Umno has also derhaka before this but it was never to this extent.

"In Terengganu, after it was resolved, we accepted the decision of the Sultan and we never went to the extent of telling Tuanku, ‘patik mohon derhaka’," he said referring to the dispute over who should be Terengganu MB after the 12th general election in which Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh was sidelined by the palace in favour of Datuk Ahmad Said.