A call for the government to stand and act

By Datuk Seri Kalimullah Hassan

I DON’T understand Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and our Government.

They have a crisis worsening daily under their noses, and the government is not doing anything to curb it.

What would it take for them to act?

First, the Negeri Sembilan constitutional crisis has led to the collapse of the democratically elected government barely three years into its five-year term, confounding investors, dividing the rakyat, and causing the administration to become dysfunctional.

Then, the perpetrators of this crisis - who could have averted it by abiding by the letter and spirit of the State Constitution - continue to scale up despite the ad interim injunction issued by the Seremban High Court.

Giving total disregard to the rule of law.

Instead, they responded by anointing a willing and complicit “new ruler”, Tunku Nadzaruddin Tuanku Jaafar, when the Prime Minister himself says the federal government recognises the current ruler, Tuanku Mukhriz Tuanku Munawir, who has been on the throne since 2008.

Two Kings in one Kingdom?

The four chieftains, the Undangs, and the Tunku Besar of Tampin, fed on by politician Tan Sri Rais Yatim, get more emboldened by the day.

Rais initially claimed to be an independent expert on the laws and constitution of Negeri Sembilan, but subsequently, it was revealed he was their legal advisor from the beginning.

Now, the Undangs have instructed the state Mufti to direct mosques to include prayers for Tunku Nadzaruddin Tuanku Jaafar instead of Tuanku Mukhriz in their Friday sermon.

Any ordinary person doing what they are doing would have been accused of trying to overthrow the ruler and would have been charged with treason, sedition or the alphabet soup of laws which successive governments say we need to maintain law and order by not steering into the sacrosanct 3Rs.

If there was a time to use these laws, it's now.

So, what’s so special about these people?

They do not have immunity. They bleed and get sick and die like any one of us.

So, what would it take for this government to do something? Violence? Rebellion? Anarchy?

If the culprits want to remove Tuanku Mukhriz or to abdicate, there is due process.

The Undangs have the power to do it.

But they now act like political hoodlums in a branch election.

This is embarrassing and not the way for a country of laws.

And the Prime Minister must not allow the perpetrators to disrupt the country’s social fabric.

The nation and Negeri Sembilan need him to act, and act now.

Datuk Seri Kalimullah Hassan is the chairman of ECM Libra Foundation and a former NSTP group editor-in-chief