Nizar to vacate MB's residence before Feb 27 deadline - Sun

By Humayun Kabir

IPOH (Feb 14, 2009) :

Former Perak Pakatan Rakyat mentri besar Datuk Seri Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin(pix) will vacate his official residence much earlier than the deadline of Feb 27 set by the state secretary.

Nizar told theSun today he had received a written order from State Secretary Datuk Dr Abdul Rahman Hasim on Saturday to vacate the residence by Feb 27.

However, he said he will vacate the premises much earlier than that.

"Actually, I did not bring much of my family’s belongings when I took office as the mentri besar. I have moved most of the items out and only some personal belongings remain to be cleared."

Nizar intends to rent a house in Sungai Rokam, where four of his eight children are attending a religious school.

He said he will hold a ceramah before he moves out of the official residence but did not specify the date.

Nizar said he will continue to use his official car "as I am still legally the mentri besar of Perak" but said six of the 11 members of the Pakatan Rakyat state executive committee had left their official cars at his residence for the state secretary to collect.

The six are Datuk Ngeh Koo Ham (Sitiawan), Nga Kor Ming (Pantai Remis), A. Sivanesan (Sungkai), Seah Leong Peng (Pasir Bedamar), Chen Fook Chye ( Keranji) and Thomas Su Keong Siong (Pasir Pinji).

Contacted by theSun, Kuala Sepetang assemblyman Tai Sing Ng said that he and Lubok Merbau assemblyman Mohd Zainudin Mohd Yusof had left their official cars at the State Secretariat about a week ago and were using their own cars.

Tronoh assemblyman V. Sivakumar, who had declared that he is still the Perak State Assembly speaker, is still using his official car.

Former exco members Jamaluddin Mohd Razi (Behrang) and Mohd Osman Mohd Jaitu (Changat Jering), who had announced that they had become Independents, could not be reached for information about their official cars.

On the by-election for the Bukit Gantang parliamentary seat fixed for April 7, Nizar said the PAS Bukit Gantang division is preparing a list of potential candidates.

This list will be forwarded to the state PAS headquarters, which will shortlist the candidates, and forward it to their party headquarters for the final decision.

The Bukit Gantang parliamentary seat, which has 55,562 registered voters, fell vacant following the death of PAS's Roslan Shaharum of a heart attack on Feb 9.

Nizar said that out of the three state constituencies in Bukit Gantang, PAS has strong support in Changat Jering and Kuala Sepatang, which are PAS strongholds. The problem area is Trong, where PAS's influence will be tested in the by-election.

"The support from the Chinese and Indians for the Pakatan Rakyat is very good, but the same cannot be said of the Malay support because PR has no source of media coverage to reach out to them as the media is fully controlled by the Barisan Nasional government" he said, explaining why he will be launching a series of ceramah in the Malay areas to inform the Malays of the recent political crisis that brought down the PR state government.

Nizar added that the suit filed by the PR against Mentri Besar Datuk Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir and his six exco members will come up for mention at the Kuala Lumpur High Court tomorrow.