MALAYSIA made history on May 7, for all the wrong reasons, and would probably go down in the Book of Records as the only country in the world who arrests its citizens for wearing black.

May 7 was the day a royalty was said to have ‘interfered’ in the country’s democracy by allowing Perak, a northern state, to hold a state legislature assembly, while the case of who is chief minister of it was yet to be determined by the High Court.

Until February 5, this state was ruled by the People’s Alliance, a coalition of Opposition parties which former deputy prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim, helped pull together before the last general elections on 8 March 2008.

Much to the delight of ordinary folks, the High Court decided on May 11, that the chief minister is Nizar Jamaluddin, from the People’s Alliance. But the government is now appealing the case in the Court of Appeal.

A day before May 7, police went on a frenzy and nabbed more than 70 people, including civil activists and lawyers, who protested the sitting of the state legislature, which they deem “unconstitutional”.

Well known social activist and newspaper columnist Wong Chin Huat was detained under the Sedition Act for the call to “wear black” to protest the “illegal” state sitting.

What citizens want, according to Wong, is fresh state elections, so they could decide who to govern them.

Wong, who is also a Journalism lecturer, spent three nights in jail without access to his lawyer. His activist friends who held candlelight vigils for his release outside the prison were detained too. Lawyers who went there to represent their clients were nabbed as well.

Although police released all detainees on May 8, the world watched in disbelief how legal eagles could be jailed for attempting to communicate with their clients, something beyond the imagination of any right thinking democracy.

Even a member of Malaysia’s ruling coalition, the Malaysian Chinese Association (or MCA) legal bureau chairman Leong Tang Cheong lambasted the police for ‘abuse of Police Power’ and said it was a direct affront to the laws of the country and must be condemned”.

This week alone, the government did a few stunts which rendered obsolete Najib Razak’s ‘1Malaysia’ slogan (calling for unity and equality of all Malaysians just as he ascended to power on April 5).

Prominent Opposition leader Lim Kit Siang said the slogan has been “shredded to smithereens”.

For absurdity of Malaysian politics did not end with the prohibition of wearing black, or arrests of lawyers.

On May 6, police confiscated a cake with the message ‘Happy Birthday Altantuya’, smashed it for ‘security reasons’, and carried its remains in a car, which also ferried two Opposition supporters to jail.

The group was detained in front of Najib’s office for handing over a letter to him from Altantuya’s dad, Stev Shariibuu, asking him to ‘settle his daughter’s murder case’.

Najib’s two body guards bombed the woman with explosives only available from the ministry of defense, when Najib was defense minister. His close friend, political analyst Razak Baginda, escaped the gallows.

Other than this baggage which came along with Najib to Putrajaya, he added one more by incurring the wrath of the people, by the recent power grab episode in Perak.

He was abetted by the Perak Ruler Sultan Azlan Shah, former Lord President, who ought to know the legalities of the issues better than others.

As it happened, the royal decision led to chaos in the Assembly.  House speaker V.Sivakumar of the People’s Alliance was dragged out in an unsightly manner out of his seat and barred from entering the premises.

He was replaced by another speaker, R.Ganesan, from Najib’s party.

What ensued after that was a shouting match, where insults were traded, and decency became cheap. Microphones were switched off, flower pots went flying, pepper spray used, while women state reps cried sexual harassment.

It was a ‘political tragedy of the worst imaginable kind’, said Tunku Aziz, renowned former vice-chairman of the Malaysian Chapter of Transparency International. 

“I never for a moment thought I should live to see the day when a traditional hereditary ruler of a Malay State has taken such a rapid slide in his people’s estimation, approbation and adulation as has the Sultan Azlan Shah of Perak,” lamented Aziz, who is also a senator in Penang.  

Former UN Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers Param Cumarasamy described the situation as a “crisis leading to anarchy”.

“Rulers must not only be above politics but must be seen to be so,” said Param, and how we Malaysians agree with him.

After the Perak crisis, Malaysians now know that Democracy is their birth right, a precious gem, which must not be given up so easily.

• Susan Loone is a former journalist currently residing in Bangkok. She can be contacted at [email protected] and blogs actively on Malaysian politics at www.sloone.wordpress.com.