is albar sabotaging najib? (or is he just stupid)

What is Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar trying to do? Every one of his recent actions has angered the public and put another black mark on Najib’s “popularity” – popularity? What popularity? … See what I mean?

Cases in point:

1) Albar’s decree on the Kugan case – “Don’t make a hero out of a criminal (Kugan) and demonise the cops (for torturing a suspect to death)”

Result: Everyone is pissed off at the boss of BN [let's face it, Najib is already boss, Badawi is a near-goner].

2) The FRU, who are under the Police, who are under Home Minister Albar, ’controlled’ the crowd of demonstrators in Kuala Kangsar last week by firing tear gas INTO a mosque.

Result:  Everyone is pissed off at the boss of BN.

3) The police have banned all public gatherings in Perak until Najib’s puppets in the ‘new’ state govt. can go about their work in peace.

Result: Yeah, you guessed it.

4) 20,000 copies of  Suara Keadilan and an unknown quantity of Harakah are confiscated by the Home Ministry.

Result: Uh-huh.

5) The Herald is facing an ongoing shakedown by the Home Ministry – Albar says Christians are “trying to show their strength” against Islam.

Result: Fr. Lawrence Andrew is really pissed off.

6) **this space is left blank until Albar makes another move that pisses off everyone and demonises Najib – just wait a few hours**

So, if Najib is instructing Albar to do all the above, Najib needs a PR consultant [Public Relations, not ...] to advise him on how to save his near-demolished reputation and curry a little favour with the voting public.

If Albar is doing all these because he thinks it’s the right thing to do and his boss will be pleased, he’s clearly not very clear on the concept of good public relations, either [hence his nickname "Allblur"].

Albar came to the limelight in Badawi’s time, hence he could be termed a Badawi man.

There is talk that the BN is divided into the “Najib camp” and the “Badawi camp”, and the latter camp is feverishly plotting Najib’s downfall before March 9th.

This can be seen by the latest example: Khairy leading a gang of UMNO goons to Karpal’s office, baying for his blood. Result: Everyone’s pissed of at the boss of BN.

Is Albar also in the Badawi camp? Is Najib going “oh no no NOOOO!!!” everytime Albar opens his mouth?

If that’s the case, let’s give Albar a medal, shall we?

"I know I lok stupeed, bak I jas akshen oniiii..."

perak: down but not out

YES – the BN beat PR at their own game – they did a Sept 16 and succeeded.

YES – the balance of power rests on a mere THREE “independents” [read: BN lackeys] – it’s BN 28 seats – PR 28 seats – Ind. 3 seats.

YES – the Sultan has made a HUGELY unpopular decision -  reports from people who attended the mayhem in KK yesterday witnessed not only the Raja Muda’s car being pelted with stones but people also showing the Sultan THE FINGER.

Angry as the people may be, His Highness was using a legitimate “literal interpretation” of the Law on the matter, ie:
3 Inds. + 28 BN ADUNs were interviewed by the Sultan and all 31 of them confirmed that the Chief Minister “ceases to command the confidence of the majority…” [Art.16(6)].

Once that was established, the State Constitution provided that he tender his resignation.

HOWEVER … the Sultan did not check if past similar cases used a different interpretation, which he should follow, ie:
“that a ruler can appoint as chief minister an elected member of the legislature who in his opinion enjoyed the confidence of a majority of the members [read: Pakatan's CM]; and, that once appointed a chief minister was obliged to resign only after he had lost a vote of no confidence in the legislature.  
[Mustapha Harun v Mohd Adnan Robert & Joseph Pairin Kitingan ]

This would show that the Sultan has erred in using this interpretation – he cannot go about interviewing ADUNs to find out how many have lost confidence in the current CM and then ‘rule’ accordingly – the vote has to be taken at the next sitting of the State Assembly, as per precedent in the above case. [See also Terence Netto's article in Malaysiakini]

Therefore all is not lost -

1) This matter MUST be settled in Court and will be taken up by Messrs. Karpal Singh and Co.

2) The State Speaker [if he is not 'suddenly' replaced] has maintained that the 3 ‘Independents’ are no longer ADUNs and their seats are henceforth vacated until the Courts rule on the EC’s refusal to hold by-elections. At the next State Assembly, the attendance would be PR 28 – BN 28, also known as a ‘hung government’.

It would be interesting to see what the Sultan would do after this – the Constitution provides that he has to dissolve the Assembly and call for fresh elections.

3) Lord and Mastermind Najib may have pulled off a coup, but at the cost of angering not only voters in Perak but voters across the nation. Pakatan will no doubt capitalise on his bulldozing over the rights of the people. The Malaysian Insider is already labelling it the 2nd Reformasi.

Najib may have won this battle, but he’s placed himself in a most unenviable position – the man everyone loves to hate (as if he is not already despised enough) with his party guilty by association.

I wouldn’t put it past the Sultan, being the highly learned man he is, to have envisioned all these possible consequences. Could he be merely giving Najib enough rope to hang himself? Which would prove that the Sultan is an even bigger mastermind than Najib and Anwar put together!

If so, my friends, that would, in my book, give him the highest accolade:

SULTAN OF SWING!