YOU HAVE LOST IT NIZAR

I THINK Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin has lost the plot. It's as simple as that. He started his job as Perak Mentri Besar well enough last year but showed a different side of him when the political impasse in the state got truly muddled some months ago.

Today (June 15) was a special day for him, the day when he was sworn in as the new Pas MP for Bukit Gantang, but he had to spoil the occasion with a protest that almost turned the august Dewan Rakyat into another Dewan Undangan Negeri Perak. Nizar of course had the support of some of his fellow MPs from Perak and elsewhere and eventually seven of them were asked to leave the House and were suspended from the proceedings.

The main thrust of their protest, written on a black cloth which could be worn bandana like, was to ask that the Perak State Assembly be dissolved. A consistent enough position by Nizar and his colleagues from the Perak Pakatan Rakyat but surely Nizar and the others were aware that there's a place for everything. Or are we in for more of this new political culture where "everything goes", all in the name of freedom of expression? I won't be surprised if this activism of the streets is already getting much support in the alternative media.

Nizar I think is getting carried away, maybe from the support he says he's been getting from Perakians and others and also maybe from the political environment in his state itself, especially the influence of those from the Dap who form the majority in Perak. From what could be seen in the Dewan Rakyat the loudest noise came from the Dap and a little from Pas, Nizar's party.

In so protesting Nizar didn't seem to realise he was missing the point -- and that's the power to dissolve the state assembly. That Nizar, is the sole prerogative of the sultan. Thus it simply means that his protest could be interpreted as a protest against the sultan.

NO NEED TO EXPLAIN KHALID

I DON'T understand why Pas Shah Alam head and MP Khalid Samad had to explain about the resolution from his division that called for a ban on the NGO Sisters in Islam. His division may have wrongly worded the resolution which he said was never intended to mean a ban was being asked for but the fact is the delegates at the recent Pas assembly didn't see anything wrong with it, debated it and passed the resolution.

Even party president Hadi Awang spoke in favour of the resolution and further gave his take on SiS. But whatever the intention in giving the explanation, it's clear that Pas has its lines at the top all crossed.

The statements we hear from Pas leaders are also proof enough that they are first and foremost politicians. Take spiritual adviser Nik Aziz Nik Mat for example. Under any other circumstances he would have advised Muslims to forgive and forget the way Islam teaches its followers but where the relationship between pas and Umno is concerned, Nik Aziz would not want to hear anything that smells of a reconciliation. Get my drift?