PAS' Nizar sworn in as Perak MB
Malaysiakini.com
Mar 17, 2008

Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin was sworn in as Perak Menteri Besar at the royal town of Kuala Kangsar this morning. MCPX

mohammad nizar jamaluddin sworn in as perak mb with perak regent nazrin 170308The ceremony, which took place at 11.40am, was headed by the Perak Regent Raja Dr Nazrin Shah at the Iskandariah Palace.

Mohammad Nizar, who received his appointment letter before the swearing-in ceremony, is Perak's 10th MB.

Dressed in a simple black baju Melayu, Mohammad Nizar, who turned 51 today, signed his appointment letter in front of Ipoh High Court judge VT Singam.

Also present were Raja Dihilir Perak Raja Jaafar Raja Muda Musa, Raja Puan Muda Perak Raja Nor Mahani Raja Shahar Shar, state secretary Dr Abdul Rahman Hashim, Perak mufti Harussani Zakaria, former MB Tajol Rosli Ghazali and state representatives.

DAP advisor Lim Kit Siang, PAS vice president Husam Musa, PAS state chief Ahmad Awang and PKR Perak chairman Zulkifli Ibrahim were also there.

Mohammad Nizar’s first measure after assuming the menteri besar post was to announce that all compound notices and parking summonses issued up to today by all local councils in Perak would be waived.

mohammad nizar jamaluddin perak menteri besarHe also pledged to support all federal government projects planned for Perak.

This is the first time that someone outside of Umno has been appointed MB for Perak.

Mohammad Nizar, who is an engineer, won the Pasir Panjang state seat after defeating MIC's S Vasan by 4,474 votes.

The graduate from Aston University of Science and Technology in Birmingham joined PAS in 1995 and first contested the Kuala Kangsar parliamentary seat in 2004. He lost to Umno's Rafidah Aziz then.

He is married to Fatimah Taat and has eight children, five boys and three girls. Mohammad Nizar studied at the Anglo Chinese school in Kampar before moving on to SM Technic Ipoh for his A-levels.

Mohammad Nizar began his career with JKR and has held consultant engineer positions in UDA and Penang Development Corporation.

Two deputy MBs

The swearing in of Mohammad Nizar today follows days on uncertainty and internal dispures within the PAS-DAP-PKR coalition on the composition as well as the menteri besar candidate for the state government.

perak state seat breakdownFinally the parties agreed to Mohammad Nizar’s appointment as the menteri besar as well as to have six DAP, three PKR and one PAS state representatives to form the 10-person Perak state executive council.

With the appointment of Muhammad Nizar today, the next event would be the naming of the two deputy menteris besar as agreed by the coalition partners and the forming of the exco.

Perak DAP chairperson and Setiawan state assemblyperson Ngeh Khoo Ham would be made deputy menteri besar (1) while an Indian candidate from PKR would be made deputy menteri besar (2).

The only Indian candidate from PKR is S Kesavan, who won the Hutan Melintang state seat.

Kesavan - who is PKR youth deputy secretary - defeated MIC women’s deputy chief S Thangasvari by 1,721 votes.

Kit Siang’s apology

Later in the day, Kit Siang revealed that he had personally apologised to the Perak Regent over his statement last week which objected the appointment of Nizar.

lim kit siang dap pc 130208 seriousKit Siang’s objection was seen as an insult to the Perak palace which had approved Nizar’s appointment.

Kit Siang said that he was granted an audience with Raja Nazrin after the swearing-in function this morning where “I personally apologised for any offence caused to the Perak Sultan and Regent”.

“On Saturday, I had written a formal letter of apology to the Perak Sultan,” he said.

Support for BN government

Meanwhile, several groups today protested against the PAS-DAP-PKR coalition forming the new state government in Perak, stating that the incumbent BN should be recognised as the legitimate state government.

The groups submitted a memorandum to the Sultan of Perak, to pledge their support for a BN minority government.

Former Perak BN elected representatives council (Mubarak) secretary Dzulkarnain Abdul Rahman said the BN had the more legitimate claim as it held 28 seats.

“We are only here to give the memorandums to the Sultan of Perak, not to stage a protest,” he said.

perak mb mohammad nizar jamaluddin and people 170308Chinese newspaper Sin Chew daily has reported on its frontpage today that Nizar had unexpectedly turned up at a forum in Ipoh yesterday and drew applause from the mostly 3,000-strong Chinese crowd. 

He stunned the crowd by speaking in Mandarin, Hokkien, Cantonese, Tamil, English and Malay at Sin Chew's 'What's Next' political forum.

Speakers at the forum included PKR national vice-president Dr Lee Boon Chye, Perak DAP chief Ngeh Koo Ham, Wangsa Maju member of parliament Wee Choo Keong and Sin Chew's deputy chief editor Tay Tian Yan.

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