Up and Down The River Are Crocodiles

Things in Perak are getting a bit crazy.

All the back and forth in post-elections horsetrading over the post of Mentri Besar and the state executive council – reminds one of the story of Pak Pandir. Ke hulu, ke hilir – upstream and downstream – this village idiot rowed his sampan, trying to figure out which of two wedding feasts he ought to attend. In the end, his flakiness caused him to miss both kenduri and he went home hungry.

On Thursday, just when everybody thought the madness was over, the palace called off the swearing-in ceremony of PAS state secretary Mohamed Nizar Jamaluddin as MB.

Raja Nazrin, it seems, was unsatisfied Mohamed Nizar Jamaluddin had the support of all 31-coalition assemblymen.

PKR, which had been stumped by the decision for Mohamed Nizar Jamaluddin to be picked over their own Jamaluddin Mohamed Radzi, was also unhappy with the allocation of the exco seats. The DAP was to take eight and PAS the remaining two, which basically leaves the PKR out in the cold despite having won seven state seats.

So Raja Nazrin demanded a written undertaking from each coalition assemblyman he’d support the new MB.

According to one news report, all 31 assemblymen signed and handed over the undertaking by 10pm on Thursday.

Furthermore, a new deal was brokered giving the DAP six seats, PKR three and PAS one.

Is this the end of the story or will our village idiots get into their rickety sampan again and try to go upstream and downstream? The waters are rough and there are a lot of buayas in the river. If they are not careful, they’re going to end up in the belly of a reptile.