Test your support in state assembly, lawyer tells Mukhriz

Kedah Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Mukhriz Mahathir addressing the crowd during a break in the Kedah FA and Sungai Ara FC friendly match at Stadium Darul Aman in Alor Star yesterday. A lawyer says the menteri besar should convene an emergency state assembly meeting to gauge the support from the 36 assemblymen. – The Malaysian Insider pic by Hasnoor Hussain, February 2, 2016.

As the Kedah menteri besar saga drags on for another day, constitutional lawyer Philip Koh Tong Ngee says the matter is best settled by the state assembly through a vote to determine if Datuk Seri Mukhriz Mahathir still has the majority support.

Mukhriz should convene an emergency state assembly meeting to gauge the support from the 36 assemblymen.

This was a legal and more transparent way of solving the constitutional problem to determine the measure of support enjoyed by Mukhriz, Koh said.

“He and the speaker should just persuade the appointing authority to call for an emergency session to overcome the crisis,” he told The Malaysian Insider.

Koh said this in response to the Kedah Regency Council, which did not make any announcement on who would be the new menteri besar after meeting 21 Barisan Nasional assemblymen, including Mukhriz yesterday.

Instead, the council has summoned the 15 opposition members today.

Koh said, in the past, the menteris besar or chief ministers in BN-ruled states would have resigned once the national leadership was no longer in favour of the incumbent.

“But this is unprecedented and shows a division within Umno and BN.”

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak met Kedah BN assemblymen on Sunday evening and told them to accept the new menteri besar who would replace Mukhriz, according to sources.

He reportedly told the assemblymen that he had obtained the consent of the Kedah sultan and the Regency Council.

Koh said what the Kedah Regency Council was doing was following the precedent set in the 2010 Federal Court ruling in the case of then Perak menteri besar Datuk Seri Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin v Datuk Seri Zambry Abdul Kadir.

That case established the principle that the appointing authority (Yang di-Pertuan Agong, the Malay rulers and the governors) could look into extraneous factors to determine whether an incumbent head of government has lost the confidence of the majority elected representative – without returning the matter to the legislature.

Koh appeared for Nizar, who was succeeded by Zambry when the Federal Court ruled that the latter was the rightful menteri besar.

He has also appeared for former Sabah chief minister Tan Sri Pairin Kitingan, who was declared the rightful chief minister in the 1985 constitutional crisis against Tun Datu Mustapha.

Koh added that it was now ironic for BN to use statutory declarations (SD) to oust Mukhriz because those aligned to Najib at the federal level were against the use of such a method to oust Najib last year.

“The BN leaders had severely criticised those for undemocratically trying to topple the federal government when there were rumours of SDs being relied on to remove Najib.”

Constitutional law expert Dr Abdul Aziz Bari said he found the council’s summons to the opposition assemblymen “baffling” since they do not have the numbers.

“It is irrelevant to call them,” he said, since the opposition could not form the state government because of the lack of numbers.

The 36-seat Kedah assembly has 21 BN lawmakers and 15 from the opposition.

Aziz said the role of the sultan as the head of state was to ensure the government was stable enough to administer the state and protect the people’s welfare.

“Events thus far show the Kedah Regency is unsure of itself or it seems they do not know what to do.”

He also asked why Bakar Bata assemblyman Datuk Ahmad Bashah Md Hanipah did not institute a vote of no confidence against Mukhriz if he has the support of the majority BN representative in the assembly.

Bashah, who is also state Umno deputy liaison chief, held a press conference on January 20 demanding Mukhriz’s removal.

- TMI