I read with extreme disgust and anger at how our country which professes to be a democratic and lawfully-abiding nation, can go into such a mess and is seems that a whole democratically-elected state government can be thrown out by a few who have no respect for the law.

In the first place, how could the Election Commission have such absolute powers as to be able to refuse to accept the notice from the speaker of the Perak state assembly informing them of the resignation of two state assembly reps?

I don't think I need to expand on what other writers have written before that the EC actually does not have the power to decide whether the resignation letters of the two assembly persons are in order as its job is just to conduct elections only.

The point is that Pakatan has now been reduced to a rubble with no power to stop the resignation of any of their reps who plan to jump ship. The pre-signed resignation letters were an insurance for the party in that if their reps crossed over to another party, they would have to vacate their seats to pave the way for a by-election.

But now, this has been ‘nullified’ by the EC. Pakatan reps can now freely jump ship without having to worry about losing their seats. The EC has given them the freedom to do so. There is nothing the Pakatan parties can do to stop them.

It is just a matter of days or weeks before Barisan Nasional with all their dirty tactics as well as their huge war chest will be out tempting most, if not all, Pakatan reps to join their coalition.

Actually, the root of the problem boils down to how could we allow the EC chairperson to do whatever he likes. We all know that he was appointed by the Barisan Nasional government recently. If I were to put it in another way, he is part of the Barisan team.

Najib knows that in order to take back the states that he has lost, he will have to create ‘havoc’ in country and as a result of this ‘havoc’, he can then wrest back from all the states and even increase the number of reps in the states that he has already won.

He knew that the only way for him to succeed was to instruct his henchman, the EC chairperson, to reject any pre-signed resignation letters handed to him by any speaker in those states that are run by the Pakatan governments.

Having said the above, just watch out for more of these similar incidents to come from the other states. We all know that the EC chairperson does not manage just the Pera, he is in charge of every state in Malaysia. If he can do this dirty thing in Perak then tell me one a good reason why he cannot do it in any of the other states? Do you get my point now?

It is just a matter of time before an explosion in every state blows up. If he is unstoppable in Perak, then what or who can stop him in any of the other states? Mind you, this is no small matter.

Now let’s look at the current scenario from a different perspective. Let say the Perak assembly apeaker sent the two pre-signed resignation letters to the EC chairperson. The latter accepts it and calls for a meeting. After that, based on the constitution, he declares the two seats as empty and call for by-elections.

In the meanwhile, of course, the two assembly persons will cry foul that they did not resign and that they are still the representatives for the two seats. However, as much as they shout and cry, they will still have to go through legal process which will certainly take a long time.

While they bring their case to court, the by-elections would have been called and by the time the court has finished hearing their applications, the by-elections would have taken place and new reps would have been elected.

Now I think I have said enough and I wish to leave it to your imagination as to what would happen in Malaysia in time to come. We can't go against the sultan as we are his subjects but I am sure we can go for the EC chairperson instead.

If he now retracts his decision and confirms that the three seats are now vacant, then the bigger problem would be solved. At the same time, our future would also be safeguard and BN would be dealt a severe blow.

I have seen that in some countries, when a such a chaotic situation happens, political party supporters are asked to hang a small red or yellow banner in front of their house to denote their anger and disgust.

By doing so they would not have contravene any of their country’s laws and also, this can be construe as some kind of silent protest by the masses. If gathering together to protest peacefully can be construed as an illegal assembly risking arrest by the police, then if we do it this way, it may be a more powerful message for the EC chairperson to see.

If all the households in Perak and else where in Malaysia hang out a coloured banner in front of their house or apartment, imagine how powerful a message we can be seen sending out to the powers-that-be.