Datuk Zambry Abdul Kadir should cut the Gordian knot of the Perak political crisis by agreeing to the dissolution of the Perak State Assembly or he will go down in history as the infamous “illegitimate Perak Mentri Besar” and dragging with him Najib Razak.

If Zambry is a democrat and believes that he has the mandate from the voters of Perak to be Mentri Besar, he should not have any qualm in opting for the only decent, honest and honourable solution to the political crisis – dissolution of the Perak State Assembly to return the mandate to the Perak voters to elect the Mentri Besar and government of their choice.

Zambry should know better than anyone that the illegal and unconstitutional power grab orchestrated by the Prime Minister-in-waiting, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, is a great disservice to the cause of the healthy growth of parliamentary democracy in the country.

This is because Zambry should have realized by now that he has no credibility and legitimacy whatsoever as the Perak Mentri Besar among the people of Perak and Malaysia – which explains why he had such a short fuse in his first media conference as the illegitimate Mentri Besar of Perak on Tuesday.

Najib might have thought that with the toppling of the Pakatan Rakyat state government and the undemocratic power grab in Perak, he has achieved a great coup which will redound to his credit in the UMNO general assembly next month when he is formally anointed Umno President and the sixth Prime Minister of Malaysia.

But he cannot be more wrong. Times have changed. Najib’s calculations might be right if such an undemocratic coup d’etat had been orchestrated in the past half-century, but in the era of the information age, where the people are not only exposed to more information but have higher expectations about accountability, transparency, rule of law, democracy and good governance, the illegal and unconstitutional power grab like the one orchestrated by Najib in Perak is completely unacceptable.

Najib is going to pay a very heavy price as he would be forfeiting the privileges of his First Hundred Days when he takes over as the sixth Prime Minister of Malaysia, for his every word and action as the new Prime Minister will come under the dark cloud because of his undemocratic, illegal and unconstitutional coup d’etat in Perak.

The recent opinion poll by Merdeka Centre that 74% of Perak voters felt that the state assembly should be dissolved to pave way for elections while 76% of voters felt that “the people, through elections” should decide on forming the Perak state government sends out clear and unmistakable messages of the people.

The choice is in the hands of Zambry, whether he wants to go down in history as the infamous “illegitimate Perak Mentri Besar” dragging Najib along with him or whether he is prepared to subordinate personal interests to the higher interests of Perak and democracy by agreeing to the dissolution of the Perak State Assembly to end the political crisis in Perak, which will also release Najib from the millstone of the illegal and unconstitutional power grab in Perak.