the Conference of Rulers held back and Badawi agreed finally with the rulers to
appoint Alauddin as chief justice (Malaya). Another golden opportunity to further
enhance the prestige of the Malay rulers was lost when Sultan Azlan Shah resolved
the political impasse in the Perak crisis by dismissing the Perak state government
(formed by the opposition PR coalition) and endorsing the formation of a govern-
ment by the BN coalition, following the ‘defection’ of three members of PR to BN.
The 2009 Perak crisis
In the state of Perak, following the general election of March 2008 , PR won thirty-one
seats in the State Legislative Assembly while BN won twenty-eight seats.^19 PR formed
the new state government. In January 2009 , a member of BN made a stunning
announcement of his intention to defect to PR, which was followed by three of PR’s
members announcing their resignations from the Legislative Assembly. The defecting
BN member re-defected to BN. In consequence, both PR and BN each had 28 seats in
the Legislative Assembly. Later the three defecting PR members said that they had
withdrawn their resignations and declared their intention to sit as independents, but
also pledged that they would give their support to the BN in confidential matters.
The Menteri Besar (chief minister) from PR, Nizar, requested Sultan Azlan Shah,
as Perak’s head of state, to dissolve the Legislative Assembly to enable fresh elections
to be held. The then deputy prime minister, Najib Razak, as the chairman of the
Perak BN, had an audience with the sultan the next day and stated that BN had a
majority in the Legislative Assembly. Sultan Azlan Shah subsequently met the
twenty-eight BN members and the three defecting PR members and ‘was convinced
that [Nizar] had ceased to command the confidence of the majority of the State
Assembly’. Sultan Azlan Shah, invoking Articlexviii( 2 )(b) of the Perak constitution,
refused to dissolve the Legislative Assembly. Instead Nizar was summoned to the
palace and was ordered by the sultan to resign as Menteri Besar, together with the
members of the state executive council, with immediate effect. A press statement
issued by the sultan’s office stated, ‘If [Nizar] does not resign from his post as Perak
Menteri Besar together with the state executive council members, then the posts of
Menteri Besar and state executive councillors are regarded as vacant.’^20 This state-
ment was tantamount to a dismissal of Nizar as the Menteri Besar of Perak.^21
(^19) See Andrew Harding, ‘Crises of Confidence and Perak’s Constitutional Impasse’, The
Malaysian Bar website, 8 June 2009 ,www.malaysianbar.org.my/general_opinions/com-
ments/crises_of_confidence_and_peraks_constitutional_impasse_andrew_harding.html.
(^20) Office of DYMM Paduka Seri Sultan Perak Darul Ridzuan, ‘Sultan Azlan Shah’s state-
ment’ (media statement), theStaronline, 5 February 2009 ,http://thestar.com.my/news/
story.asp?file=/ 2009 / 2 / 5 /nation/ 20090205173703.
(^21) The speaker of the Perak Legislative Assembly was subsequently dismissed by the
BN-controlled assembly. A challenge to the dismissal was rejected by Azahar