Such is Malaysian politics

And there is another reason why Kadir Sulaiman should find some support within the Barisan ranks. The Perak power grab was legitimised after the Court of Appeal relied on an obscure statement by Kadir from a 1995 case in Sabah. In reaching the decision, the Court of Appeal relied on a statement made by Kadir in the Amir Kahar case in 1995.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Kadir the acceptable choice?

(The Malaysian Insider, 21 June 2013) - Pakatan Rakyat wants former judge Datuk Kadir Sulaiman as the new Speaker of Parliament when the House convenes on Monday and Datuk Seri Najib Razak and Barisan Nasional should find him an acceptable choice.

After all, he is an establishment figure. He served the Terengganu royal household well. Also, it is not as if appointing someone with Kadir's background is going to break new ground.

There is already a precedent of a former judge serving as the Speaker of the House. Tun Zahir Ismail was a High Court judge before he became the longest serving Speaker in Malaysian history.

And there is another reason why Kadir should find some support within the Barisan ranks. The Perak power grab was legitimised after the Court of Appeal relied on an obscure statement by Kadir from a 1995 case in Sabah.

The crux of the issue in the power grab in Perak was whether when the then Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Nizar Jamaluddin was granted an audience by the Sultan of Perak, he had lost the confidence of the majority of the assembly, and the Malay Ruler was correct in asking him to step down.

The Court of Appeal decided that the Sultan was spot on in asking Nizar to step down, as he had lost the confidence of the majority. The court added that there was no express provision for a vote of confidence to be taken in the state assembly, which was the contention of Pakatan Rakyat.

In reaching the decision, the Court of Appeal relied on a statement made by Kadir Sulaiman in the Amir Kahar case in 1995.

"The evidence that a chief minister ceases to command the confidence of the majority members of the Assembly...is not only available from the votes taken in the Assembly. There is nothing in the Constitution which can be construed as requiring that the test of confidence must be by a vote taken in the Assembly itself. The fact can be evidenced by other extraneous sources."

This paragraph was relied on by the Court of Appeal to support their decision that there was no necessity for Nizar to face a no-confidence vote in the House and that it was correct for the Perak Sultan to rely on extraneous sources.

This decision was heavily criticised by senior lawyers because Kadir's statement was obiter dicta. It was not the meat of his decision and was merely a throwaway observation.

Still, the Appeal court relied on that statement and the Barisan was relieved that a judge by the name of Kadir Sulaiman was like-minded.

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Pakatan Rakyat says that the Malaysian courts are not impartial and work for the government while Malaysian judges are slime-balls and scumbags and corrupted to the core. Hence we cannot trust the Malaysian judicial system or Malaysian judges.

However, Pakatan Rakyat is pushing for a retired judge to be appointed the new Parliament Speaker. This appears to be a contradiction to the statement that we cannot trust Malaysian judges farther than we can throw them.

We also see Pakatan Rakyat working closely with many retired police and military officers when at one time they alleged that the Malaysian police and military are tools of the government.

Furthermore, we see Pakatan Rakyat singing the praises of some members of the royal family who were once vilified as leeches but now that they support the opposition they are revered. Some were even given seats to contest in the recent general election.

This is certainly a very interesting turn of events. I bet if some of those ‘corrupt and evil people’ from Barisan Nasional decide to cross over to Pakatan Rakyat they would instantly be forgiven for their crimes and would be welcomed to the opposition ranks with open arms and with much pomp and revelry.

Such is Malaysian politics. You can be transformed from Satan to Christ by just walking a few paces from the government aisle to the opposition aisle. You need not even return all the money you stole when you were in power.

Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad should take note of this. If he suspects that Barisan Nasional is going to fall and that Pakatan Rakyat is about to take over all he needs to do is to endorse Anwar Ibrahim for Prime Minister and Lim Kit Siang for Deputy Prime Minister and he will be hailed as the greatest Prime Minister Malaysia ever had.

Such is Malaysian politics.