By Dr Toh Kin Woon
The Edge Business Weekly

At the time of writing this article, I learned from the electronic media that 3 State Assemblypersons from the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) in the Perak State Legislative Assembly have resigned from their respective parties. 2 of them resigned from Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) while the third left the Democratic Action Party (DAP). According to the Deputy Prime Minister, Dato Seri Najib Tun Abdul Razak, these 3 will be ‘Barisan Nasional (BN) friendly’ independents in the State Legislative Assembly. By this is meant that they will support the BN, even though they are ‘independents’. Their so-called independence is not so independent after all! Meanwhile, the State Assemblyperson from the constituency of Bota, who earlier announced his resignation from UMNO to join PKR, has now returned to UMNO. With these shifts, the number of seats held by the PR has now been reduced from 31, all popularly elected by the people in the last General Election, to 28. The BN still keeps its original 28, with the remaining 3 having declared themselves as so-called independents.

His Majesty the Sultan’s Decision

Confronted with this new balance of forces, the Menteri Besar (MB) from the PR has rightly called on His Majesty the Sultan of Perak to dissolve the Assembly so that fresh elections can be called to resolve the impasse.. But His Majesty rejected the MB’s call. Instead, he has consented to appoint a leader of the BN, which has all but one of its assemblypersons from UMNO, to be the new MB. In fact, the new MB has already been sworn in. This decision of His Majesty the Sultan is likely to cause widespread Read the rest of this entry »