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!