Checkmate or are there any other moves?

I like politics because it is a test of a man’s ability to understand a group of humans, convince that group of humans, manipulate that group of humans and make that group of humans agree with the man on whatever the man decides to do.

Now replace the word “man” with any political party’s name.

Does it make sense now? Surely it does.

To understand this further, you have to refer to the happenings in Perak State Government (a state in Malaysia). If you have been following politics, you will know that Perak was ruled by PR (opposition party) with a slim majority of 31 against 28 in a 59 seat assembly.

The BN (ruling party) played it’s game by asking their own member to jump to the opposition and then later jump back with 3 more PR members. This makes BN having 31 members against PR’s 28. The whole scenario has changed. The government was handed over to the BN in name that it commands majority seats in the assembly.

Embattled in this rather funny situation, the PR guys started a series of counter strikes. One of them is the suit filed by the PR Chief Minister. Among others, is the silent bomb by the speaker of the state assembly, that is a member of the PR.

This speaker, coolly suspended 7 members of the BN (the newly appointed Chief Minister and his 6 executive councilors) for a period of 12 to 18 months.

Apart from this the speaker also not going to allow 3 members whom jumped from the PR side to the BN side.

I think by now, you should have taken out your “super high tech” calculators. Start calculating.

PR has 28 members, BN, which had 31, will not have 7 for the next 12 months, and most probably will never see the 3 party hoppers in the state assembly again – that leaves only 21 to carry on with whatever they can carry on.

In my view, the assembly looks like a hung assembly with no parties holding the simple majority. I don’t know law very much but I think you cannot win “a confidence motion” or even “a no confidence motion”. What will happen?

Surface analysis – dissolve the assembly and call for a fresh snap election.

Or, a super genius from BN should come out with a sophisticated counter movement that will lift off the checkmate done by the PR.

Politics makes life livelier ….. Wait and see for the next move. Checkmate or are there any other moves?

http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/index.php/malaysia/18686-perak-speaker-suspends-entire-exco

http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/index.php/malaysia/18701-perak-speaker-has-suspension-powers-says-legal-expert

http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/index.php/malaysia/18694-perak-bn-says-suspension-is-against-rule-of-law

Subra