Pakatan will consider Najib’s offer

KUALA LUMPUR, May 11 — By Lee Wei Lian | malaysianinsider

Pakatan Rakyat (PR) will discuss the prime minister’s offer of cooperating with Barisan Nasional (BN) to resolve the political crisis in Perak and will try to contact him before Wednesday.

DAP strongman Lim Kit Siang said today that he will discuss with other PR leaders the offer made by Datuk Seri Najib Razak and will then contact the prime minister.

He also said that he should have something to announce on Wednesday evening at the public forum “May 13 to 1Malaysia — Future of Nation Building” to be held at the Petaling Jaya Civics Centre.

The prime minister had ruled out forming a coalition government in Perak to which Lim responded in a statement to the media that PR was not interested in such an arrangement either.

“Nobody is talking about the formation of a coalition government between Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat to resolve the three-month-long political and constitutional crisis... but a solution must be found, based on fully respecting the sovereign rights of the voters of Perak to elect the government of their choice — to end the haemorrhage of the credibility and confidence in governance in Perak and Malaysia.”

When contacted by The Malaysian Insider, Lim said that he will be trying to make contact with Najib “hopefully before Wednesay.”

Perak DAP chief, Ngeh Koo Ham said that dissolving the state assembly is the most effective way to end the political crisis in the embattled state but that he is “open to any suggestion that is better.”

He says there has been no contact from BN since Najib made his offer yesterday.

The Perak political scene has been plagued with uncertainty and drama ever since BN engineered a takeover of the state in early February.

The political coup however, was not watertight and left many questioning the legitimacy of its government.

The crisis, now in its fourth month, hit a new low in a public spectacle last Thursday when scuffles broke out inside the state assembly hall and former speaker V. Sivakumar was forcibly dragged from the hall after being ousted by BN.