Amanah's Nizar sees wisdom in declining federal move

GE15 | Perak Amanah chief Asmuni Awi wanted his deputy, Nizar Jamaluddin, to contest the federal seat of Bukit Gantang for the 15th general election (GE15).

Nizar, menteri besar (MB) of the state for 11 months (March 2008 to February 2009), demurred.

This was on grounds that 10,000 non-Malay voters in the Bukit Gantang areas abutting Taiping had been moved by the Election Commission (EC) to Aulong in a redelineation exercise before GE13 in 2013.

“Those voters enabled me to win that seat for PAS in the parliamentary by-election for Bukit Gantang in 2009,” said Nizar (above).

Fortunately for him, the Amanah candidate vetting committee upheld Nizar’s demurral over being moved to Bukit Gantang.

It approved his preference to stay put in Sungai Rapat, a state seat he won in GE14, after having moved from Changkat Jering which he won in GE13, to which he had moved from Pasir Panjang (GE12), a win that catapulted him to the MB-ship of Perak in March 2008.

Nizar was Pakatan Harapan’s choice for MB of Perak three days after the coalition’s victory in GE14 on May 9, 2018.

He was headed for the palace in Kuala Kangsar with Harapan Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s letter naming him for the post in his pocket.

Well-wishers congratulated him as he arrived on the palace grounds for the ceremony.

But when the swearing-in ceremony commenced at Balai Iskandariah at 6pm, the master of ceremonies called for Bersatu’s Ahmad Faizal Azumu, winner of the Chenderiang state seat by a whisker, to step forward.

Political machinations

It was never adequately explained why Mahathir’s choice of Nizar was countermanded.

Faizal, better known by his sobriquet “Peja”, became MB in a saga that eventually ended with him being voted out of office by a combination of Umno and Harapan reps. Saarani Mohamad of Umno replaced him.

It is believed that Bersatu president Muhyiddin Yassin, playing for higher stakes than merely the Home Affairs portfolio he gained in Mahathir’s cabinet, manoeuvred to substitute Faizal for Nizar.

Perak chiefs for DAP, Ngeh Hoo Kam, and PKR, Mohd Nor Manuti, acquiesced to the substitution.

Of course, the state Bersatu chief, Faizal, had no objections.

The state Amanah chief, Asmuni, contrived to be absent at the eleventh-hour palace negotiations that preceded the swearing-in.

Osman Sapian in Johor and Mukhriz Mahathir in Kedah were already emplaced as Bersatu MBs in the states where Harapan had won the right to govern.

It was reckoned a third MB from Bersatu would fortify Muhyiddin’s quest for more altitude in the national pecking order.

And how it has been bruited about that DAP controlled Harapan in the 22 months of its federal and state ascendancies from mid-2018 to early 2020!

Brief brush with power

Nizar does not need instruction on how reality can be stranger than fiction because his becoming MB in March 2008 was surreal in itself.

A peripheral figure in Perak PAS prior to the March 2008 polls, he was chosen by Ahmad Awang, the party’s top cleric in the state, to be MB when it became clear the post was a Malay monopoly.

That rendered DAP’s plurality in the combined PKR, DAP and PAS government null as it had no Malays in its line-up. PKR had, but their reps were without academic qualifications.

Thus, mechanical engineer Nizar was plucked out of obscurity and made the head honcho.

His removal from office in February 2009 was brought about by defections and political chicanery, with then deputy prime minister Najib Abdul Razak the prime mover behind Umno-BN’s replacement of the then Pakatan Rakyat government.

It serves now to note that what goes round comes round.

One recent morning, when Nizar walked about the shops and houses in the Rapat Jaya area of his constituency, which has seen a 14,000 increase in voters over the 35,000-plus electorate in the 2018 polls, he found it easy to intuit who are BN supporters, who are Harapan’s and who are the fence-sitters.

His familiarity with his ward, which is 65 percent Malay, 23 percent Chinese, and 11 percent Indian, is honed by frequent contact which has equipped him with the niceties of verbal engagement, particularly important to the Malay community.

“You have to be careful not to presume but you have to be unabashed when it is fulsome,” he observed.

An elderly man, when shaking hands with Nizar, told him he had offered a special prayer for his victory and return as MB. Nizar’s response was an effusive “Amin, Amin.”

Nizar calls for special sitting on developer of defunct Perak theme park

Nizar: Takiyuddin confusing PAS members with vote for Umno 'fatwa'

Nizar rejects post-dated cheque from PAS leader who slandered him

Asmuni Awi, former MB Nizar hold on to two top Perak Amanah posts