Anwar’s Response to Karpal
posted by din merican—February 9, 2009
www.malaysiakini.com
Anwar: It’s his personal view
Malaysiakini Team
February 8, 2009
DAP chairperson Karpal Singh’s call for Anwar Ibrahim to step down as the Pakatan Rakyat leader was his personal view and did not reflect the official stand of DAP, said the PKR leader today. Anwar said that Karpal was disappointed with him for not agreeing with the senior lawyer in filing a suit against the Sultan of Perak over the sacking of the Pakatan government in the state.
“Our opinions differ on the suit against the sultan. What he said was his personal opinion,” Anwar told reporters after attending a Pakatan rally in Ipoh. He also dismissed Karpal’s allegations that he had caused disarray in Pakatan Rakayt with his calls for BN elected representatives to defect.
Anwar said he had discussed Karpal’s outburst with DAP leader Lim Kit Siang and will be talking to Karpal too. He also said that a Pakatan meeting today did not discuss the matter. Earlier today Karpal attacked Anwar for the disarray Pakatan was in at the moment, especially in Perak.
The DAP politician also urged Anwar to step down as the chief of Pakatan Rakyat, stating that Anwar had created enough trouble for Pakatan with his open calls of enticing defectors from Barisan Nasional to form the federal government. The rally held at the Perak menteri besar’s official residence in Ipoh attracted more than 8,000 people.
Petition to the sultan
Among the Pakatan leaders who were present included PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang and DAP leader Tan Seng Giaw. Kit Siang and DAP secretary general Lim Guan Eng were the notable absentees although they were supposed to be present. Apart from Anwar, the other speakers at the rally included ousted Pakatan menteri besar Mohd Nizar Jamaluddin, Abdul Hadi and Tan.
The rally stared at about 9pm and ended at 11.45pm without any untoward incidents. Earlier in the evening traffic in Ipoh was reduced to a crawl as the result of the police closure of an important roundabout next to the menteri besar official residence.
At 5pm, police began erecting roadblocks preventing people from entering Jalan Raja Dihilir where the menteri besar’s residence is located. The police however allowed cars to exit the road but not to enter. However, as of 9 p.m, some 3,000 Pakatan supporters have managed to enter the residence on foot.
A petition was distributed to the crowd at the rally to collect signatures to ask the Sultan of Perak to agree to dissolve the state assembly.
It was to act as a referendum which also sought the sultan to suspend the new menteri besar and his exco that was to be sworn in on Tuesday. It also wanted the government agencies and security force to remain neutral.
It is unusual for the Chairman of DAP which is one of the three pillars of Pakatan Rakyat coalition to take an independent stance on the status of Malay Rulers. The position of our Rulers is embodied in our national constitution and members in the PR family are committed to protect and defend it.
The PR joint council of leaders had taken a decision earlier that it would not take legal action against HRH Sultan of Perak. One would expect that a senior and experienced politician like Mr Karpal Singh to fall in line with the position of his own party, DAP.
Anwar has not acted against the interest of the coalition to warrant a call by Karpal for his resignation as the de facto PR leader. In fact, I am told that Anwar acted within the bounds of the Law. Therefore if Karpal is such a principled politician, as he claims himself to be, he should resign his position as DAP Chairman; otherwise DAP should take disciplinary action against him for speaking out of turn and allowing his own deep seated prejudices against PAS and now PKR get the better of him. The coalition is too important to left in the hands of a single individual like this Jelutong MP to wreck it. All PR members and supporters must rally behind Anwar Ibrahim and back him to the hilt at the next Prime Minister of Malaysia.
This is not the time for Karpal to play to the press gallery and weaken the PR coalition by speaking the way he did; he sounds like MIC spokesman and a cheap imitation of Samy Velu.—eiz
eiz235 - February 9, 2009 at 10:52 am
Poor Karpal Singh. He said as a DAP Chairman, his opinion has not been heard by his colleagues in DAP, namely Lim Kit Siang, Lim Guang Eng and several others. This only shows that as Chairman Karpal does not command respect even within his own party. He should resign from the Chairmanship. This should have been done long ago.
Karpal forgets this simple fact. It is via Pkatan Rakyat coalition that Penang now is ruled by DAP as a major partner with LGE as a Chief Minister. DAP can’t take Penang on his own, unless DAP has enough seats on his own to form the government, which many people think it is impossible to achieve. History shows that despite many attempts by DAP under its Tanjung Projects, it failed miserably to capture Penang. The same applies to other states held by Pakatan Rakyat. In Selangor, although the Menteri Besar is from PKR, but DAP members (wakil rakyats) are now jointly ruling Selangor as Excos and Speaker. Same with Perak, before PR government `collapsed’ unconstitutionally.
Karpal, as a veteran politician and a lawyer, must realize that he won his parlimentary seat in last general election due to the support he obtained from Malays, Chinese and Indians. . Karpal should consider himself lucky — that despite majority of Penangites no longer favour him, he won the election. Not only him, but two of his sons became an instant politician, for they too won their respective seats. Now you tell me, do you and your two sons won because people like you or because DAP and other Pakatan Rakyat parties, PKR and PAS, are together in the coalition?
If he now thinks that he is a master of politics, I suggest that he resigns as Chairman of DAP (as he said people no longer listen to him), quit DAP and stand as an Independant. I strongly feel that you would lose your deposit. Calling Anwar to resign and criticising him blindly and openly does not really reflect your claim to be a veteran, experiencec and wise politician. Karpal, you should retire and people will remember you better!
anak bangau - February 9, 2009 at 12:19 pm
eiz235 said…he sounds like MIC spokesman and a cheap imitation of Samy Velu. Hahaha… I like the way you saying it.
Karpal must be spending too much time watching tamil movies lately.
However, think again and see the wisdom of what he said especially on hudud etc..
tean - February 9, 2009 at 12:20 pm
Whatever YB Karpal Singh may raised now and then , there were puzzling questions that need to be answered. The question is why raise this PR leadership issue at a time when the whole PR exco is up against the might of BN and UMNO and at a time when PR lost the state government to BN ?
Karpal should quizzed Najib on why he rampas kuasa and therefore illegal from the standpoint of law . Unless Karpal wants to see PR damaged irreparably !
The second question that puzzled all of us was why he raised the hudud issue when the KT by-election was ongoing and make his outburst against PAS ?
I hope there are no sinister motives behind all these. Only time can tell.
fslam - February 9, 2009 at 2:33 pm
Here’s my two cents worth!
By taking sides to Anwar or Karpal, the PR members are playing themselves to the clutches of their opposition. ! Soon it will end up with Anwar and Karpal pitted against each other and one of them may have to leave and that will cause more disarray in the camp !
The moral of the story – keep your house clean and in order, by all means but is there a need to air your dirty linens in public ? Why layan the MSM ?
Both of them have their their points, just the methods of execution,that differs. Anwar, from a politician’s angle may have his reason(s) not to resort to suing the Sultan while Karpal has his, from a legal angle.
May I humbly suggest that people find out what constitutional monarchy in a democracy is all about first, before branding others as traitors .
ocho-onda - February 9, 2009 at 5:44 pm
PR should instead challenge Zambri to contest Nizar in Bukit Gantang !
Let the wishes of the rakyat be known loud and clear to the Sultan.
ocho-onda - February 9, 2009 at 8:31 pm
The former DPM and the incumbent appear to be carry the same amount of luggage which is well beyond what they are allowed. I hope that all that luggage does not keep the plane grounded.
Bukit Antarabangsa - February 9, 2009 at 8:40 pm
PR aspires to lead our country one day soon and here we are with a senior figure of one coalition member railing against his leader and having it splashed all over the front pages. What are the electorate to think of all this? Surely one telephone call could have solved the matter – or is this being too simplistic? If anyone should resign it is surely Karpal for his intemperate outburst and not Anwar. I say this because Karpal has another strange affliction – a seemingly incurable allergy to the word “hudud”, the mere mention of which sends him into a frenzy. He has served this country well for decades but I feel it is time he left it to others.
Isa Manteqi - February 9, 2009 at 9:06 pm
Suing the Sultan of any state is a bad idea for a host of reasons. First, isn’t the monarch above the law? But then Karpal would say that’s the Queen of England. This is Malaysia! We have a written constitution and England does not. We have a Queen of England belonging to a dynasty that goes back to more than1,000 years with just as many years of history and tradition. The force of convention is stronger than any written law. Today it is inconceivable that the Queen of England would want to even give the appearance however remote it may be that she has taken a partisan stand on the many issues affecting her subjects – beyond occasionally declaring that the year has been an annus horribilis for the Royal Family.
It is not so with Malaysia, Karpal would say.
The problem with Karpal Singh is that he is not able to separate the politician in him and the lawyer that he has always been and will always remain. You never stop being a lawyer but you can with being a politician.
The difficulty is how do you sue the Sultan, without making him take the witness stand and testify, and be cross-examined like any other witnesses?
Mr Bean - February 9, 2009 at 9:07 pm
Anwar, on the other hand, is too smart (politically smart as many would say) to involve himself in issues in a manner that would bring his loyalty to the sultan into question. He chooses his words well. That is the kind of politician the country should have i.e. one who understands that the supremacy of the constitution would be meaningless without the sultan being seen to embody the will of the people. How do you sue the will of the people?
Mr Bean - February 9, 2009 at 9:22 pm
DSAI, the gentleman that he is, had stated his view on Karpal’s outburst. We should respect that and not add fuel to the already raging ‘outback’ fire.
I agree with you Mr Bean, YB Karpal tends to be myopic on ‘legal’ and ‘extralegal’ issues. Many say that he’s not a ‘team player’ unless one happens to be on his team, but i beg to differ. He tends to see the present as he perceives it to be and doesn’t factor in other variables. It’s his way to keep many of us from ‘delusions of grandeur’, and there is much wisdom in that – but it’s just the way he does it!
No he’s not ‘playing to the gallery’ so to speak, but his own sense of righteousness; and it gladdens me that Anwar is prescient enough to discuss this alone with him, after all he is still the venerable Chairman of DAP.
Let us stop pointing fingers at each other and just listen, forgive, then reach an understanding and continue pressing forward.
Blessed Chap Goh Meh.
Menyalak-er - February 9, 2009 at 10:37 pm
“…the supremacy of the constitution would be meaningless without the sultan being seen to embody the will of the people.” Mr. Bean.
Precisely this is a million dollars question in Perak.
tean - February 10, 2009 at 12:41 am
I was disappointed with the decision of the Sultan and my gut feeling was to maintain that his discretion has to be justifiably exercised. Like the discretion exercisable by a judge, it is not unfettered. I now think this is conceptually flawed.The other school of thought is to view the discretion as absolute and cannot be questioned because he is the Sultan. Period.
A third view, which I am now inclined to take, is to require that the discretion be justifiably exercised but because the Sultan is above the law, his discretion has the effect of being absolute because it cannot be challenged in a court of law. How’s that? This is likely to be the reasoning the country’s newly appointed Chief Justice is likely to adopt.
Mr Bean - February 10, 2009 at 5:44 am
Is Article 32 applicable to the Agong only, in his position as the supreme ruler of Malaysia but not to the Sultans – with reference to the outcome of last year’s court case involving the former Regent of Negri Sembilan ?
And if so, has the case bear any influence on the selection and appointment of the present CJ as the nation’s top Judge ?
ocho-onda - February 10, 2009 at 6:33 pm
“That is the kind of politician the country should have i.e. one who understands that the supremacy of the constitution would be meaningless without the sultan being seen to embody the will of the people. How do you sue the will of the people?” Mr. Bean
And what is the will of the people of Perak ? I thought it is already very clear unless I am mistaken that there exists two interpretations of what the rakyat wants – the PR and the BN version !
If HRH Sultan Azlan Shah has doubts, why not allow a re-election to decide on the will of the people of Perak on the issue ?
Or perhaps, it is not that simple, that there are other issues and interests involved as well that the rakyat is not aware of ?
ocho-onda - February 10, 2009 at 6:52 pm
Judging from the reaction by the Malays, Karpal has stirred a hornets nest! He fell into the trap and single-handedly destroyed what PR was trying to build i.e. the kind of race relations that would pave the way to a new era in politics.
The DAP leadership should just throw him under the bus.
Mr Bean - February 10, 2009 at 10:19 pm