Former Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said the political turmoil in Perak was the result of “rash” decisions undertaken by the Barisan Nasional to wrest the state from Pakatan Rakyat.

“The problems you see in Perak are because (BN) took some wrong steps. They should have asked the AG (attorney-general) on what is said in the law, then there would have been no problems.

perak state govt crisis the rain tree assembly 040309 07 “But because they didn’t follow the law, now there are all sorts of problems,” he said to a question during his lecture today on “Democracy and the Future Leadership of Malaysia”, organised by the Former People's Representatives Council (Mubarak), at the Tun Hussien Onn Memorial in Kuala Lumpur.

Elaborating, Mahathir said that BN was “ terlalu gopoh (too rash)” by not waiting for a state assembly sitting to rid Mohd Nizar Jamaluddin as menteri besar through a vote of no confidence.

“Instead, they asked the sultan to throw out the menteri besar. Some say that the Perak laws allow this, but to my knowledge, this is not the case. Nor does the Federal Constitution (allow this),” he said.

Resulting from this, Mahathir said that it was no surprise that Mohd Nizar and his cohorts refused to heed the sultan’s directive, thus setting off a chain reaction of lawsuits.

'The rulers have other interests'

malaysian law conference 291007 sultan azlan shah 1 Mahathir, who clipped the powers of the royals during his reign as prime minister, also displayed disdain for royal intervention in Perak.

“This is also dangerous - if the sultan can get rid of a menteri besar or the Agong can get rid of the prime minister - susah kita (we’ll be in trouble).

“They (the rulers) have other interests. They don’t have our political interests in mind,” he said.

At a press conference later, Mahathir did not give a direct answer when asked if he meant that the BN takeover of Perak was unlawful.

“It is up to the legal people to decide. What I do know is that for a menteri besar to be removed, it is through a vote of no-confidence (in the state assembly),” he said.

On the RM60 billion economic stimulus package, Mahathir said that it may be the beginning of a series of stimulus packages, just like in the US.