By SuaraKeAdilan English Team | Mar 2, 2009
Bar Council president Ambiga Sreenevasan today slammed the police for deeming tomorrow’s emergency sitting of the Perak legislature as illegal, warning it not only reeked of taking sides but would also harden public perceptions that Malaysian institutions were at the beck and call of the ruling politicians of the day.
“This is a real test of the whether our institutions are truly independent,” Ambiga told Suara KeADILan.
She also criticised the police for hiding behind the instructions of the state assembly secretary, who yesterday issued an unauthorised statement that the sitting was invalid because it lacked the Sultan’s consent.
“The secretary has absolutely no right nor authority at all to question the validity and legality of the sitting,” she said, adding that the secretary was merely an employee and took instructions from the Speaker.
If state-wide polls can be suppressed, so too can nation-wide general election
But even as civil society joined the legal fraternity in denouncing the Umno-Barisan Nasional government for dirty tactics, they worried the Perak incident might herald a dark age of police or emergency rule as Deputy Premier Najib Abdul Razak scrounges for all ways and means to cling to power.
“If over a former tin-mining state like Perak, Najib is prepared to damage the nation in this way, just imagine if the whole country was a stake. If he can suppress a state-wide snap election, what makes you think he won’t suppress a nation-wide general election, where the payoff and rewards are so much greater,” said a political analyst.
State legislative Speaker V Sivakumar had last week called an emergency meeting of the assembly to vote on two motions. One is a vote of confidence in Pakatan Rakyat leader Nizar Jamaluddin as Menteri Besar and the other a motion to dissolve the state assembly, paving the way for fresh election that would allow the people to vote in the leadership that they wanted.
Perak police chief Zulkefli Abdullah this afternoon warned of police action against any gathering at the state secretariat building, where the legislative assembly hall is located, saying such a gathering would be illegal.
He said the building administration had informed the police that the state assembly would not sit tomorrow and added that only State Secretariat employees and people with prior approval would be allowed into the building.
“According to a statement from the secretary of the assembly received today, the emergency sitting of the assembly is not valid because it does not have the consent of the Sultan of Perak,” he said.
Meanwhile, roadblocks have been set up and FRU trucks stationed on standby behind the building.
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