Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin

Yang Berhormat Dato' Seri Ir. Haji Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin SPMP, MLA (Perak), LL.B, BEng (Aston)
10th Menteri Besar of Perak
In office 17 March 2008 – 12 May 2009
Monarch	Sultan Azlan Shah
Preceded by	Tajol Rosli Mohd Ghazali
Succeeded by	Zambry Abdul Kadir
Member of the Perak State Assembly for Changkat Jering
Incumbent
Assumed office 6 May 2013
Preceded by	Mohamad Osman Jailu
Member of the Perak State Assembly for Pasir Panjang
In office 8 March 2008 – 5 May 2013
Preceded by	M. Ramachandran
Succeeded by	Rashidi Ibrahim
Member of the Malaysian Parliament for Bukit Gantang
In office 7 April 2009 – 5 May 2013
Preceded by	Roslan Shaharum (PR – PAS)
Succeeded by	Idris Ahmad
Personal details
Born	(1957-03-17) 17 March 1957 Kampar, Perak, Federation of Malaya (now Malaysia)
Nationality	Malaysian
Political party	Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (until 2015) Malaysian Workers' Party (2015-present)
Spouse(s)	Fatimah Taat
Children	7 children
Residence	Sungai Rokam, Perak
Alma mater	Aston University
Occupation	Politician
Profession	Engineer
Religion	Sunni Islam

Dato' Seri Ir. Haji Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin (born 17 March 1957) is the former Menteri Besar (Chief Minister) of the Malaysian state of Perak, and Member of Parliament for Bukit Gantang. Nizar is the secretary of the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) Perak's Branch.

Nizar was appointed as Menteri Besar on 17 March 2008 but was ousted in January 2009. He was the first, and remains the only, Menteri Besar of Perak not from the Barisan Nasional coalition. His appointment followed the 2008 general election, in which the Pakatan Rakyat coalition, comprising the Democratic Action Party (DAP), the Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) and his own party, PAS, won a majority of the seats in the Perak State Legislative Assembly. Appointed by the Crown Prince of Perak Raja Nazrin Shah over two other candidates, Datuk Ngeh Koo Ham and Jamaluddin Mohd Radzi, his appointment was initially controversial, as his party was the smallest of the three Pakatan Rakyat parties in the state assembly.^[1] He was removed as Menteri Besar just over a year later, following defections from Pakatan Rakyat coalition to Barisan Nasional that gave the latter a majority in the assembly and sparked a constitutional crisis.

Nizar is an engineering graduate from Aston University in Birmingham, United Kingdom.^[2] He took over the chief minister post from Datuk Seri DiRaja Tajol Rosli Mohd. Ghazali of Barisan Nasional.

Appointment as Menteri Besar

On 8 March 2008, the Pakatan Rakyat coalition in Perak won 31 seats of the 59 seat Perak State Assembly, which enabled it to form a majority state government.^[3] The Democratic Action Party commanded the most seats out of the 31 seats held by Pakatan Rakyat and were the claimants to the post of Menteri Besar. However, the Perak State Constitution stipulated that the Menteri Besar must be of Malay descent, and a non-Malay could only be appointed by a royal waiver by the Perak Palace. To resolve this, all three parties sent their nominations for the MB post to the Regent of Perak, Raja Nazrin Shah. Nizar was chosen over Dato' Seri Ngeh Koo Ham of the DAP and Jamaluddin Mohd Radzi of PKR on 12 March 2008 by Raja Nazrin,^[4] and sworn in on 17 March 2008 at Istana Iskandariah, Kuala Kangsar. Nizar was the first person not part of the Barisan National coalition to hold such a post in Perak.

The appointment of Nizar created a minor stir within the opposition coalition after the DAP's central executive committee, under the advice of Lim Kit Siang ordered Perak DAP state assemblymen to boycott the swearing-in ceremony to be held on 13 March 2008. Raja Nazrin then ordered a delay of the swearing in ceremony and asked all 31 of Pakatan Rakyat's assemblymen to pledge their support of Nizar's appointment, since otherwise Nizar is shown as not having majority support and therefore cannot be appointed as the Menteri Besar. Lim has since apologised and stated that he did not mean to disrespect the decision of the sultan and the regent of Perak.^[5] Following the resolution of this matter, all the state assemblymen from PKR, PAS and DAP (including Lim Kit Siang) attended the Menteri Besar swearing-in ceremony in support of Nizar.

Administration

Nizar's administration granted freehold title to ethnic Chinese landholders in the settlements called as New Villages (Kampung Baru) in Perak. The Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister, Dato' Seri Najib Tun Razak disputed the state government's ability to grant the freehold titles, instead saying that the jurisdiction lied federally.^[6] Almost every act of his administration was criticised by the Malaysian mainstream press, especially by Utusan Malaysia and Berita Harian, an UMNO-owned, Malay-nationalist newspaper.^[7]

Nizar's administration was hounded by constant accusations of being a proxy to the DAP which had the majority seats in the State Assembly. In particular he was accused of being a puppet DAP's Datuk Ngeh Koo Ham and Nga Kor Ming, senior exco members in his cabinet.^[8]

Controversy

2009 Perak constitutional crisis

In July 2008, former Perak MB Datuk Seri DiRaja Tajol Rosli Mohd. Ghazali claimed that the Pakatan Rakyat state government in Perak will fall on 31 August 2008 – Malaysia's Independence day through defections to Barisan Nasional from the PR camp^[9] – a clear corruption of PR leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim's 16 September 2008 plan to engineer mass defections of BN MPs from Sabah and Sarawak to form the new federal government.^[10] Nizar dismissed Tajol's claims and remarked "Who is he (Tajol) to predict the future?".

On 25 January 2009, BN's MLA from the Bota constituency, Datuk Nasarudin Hashim announced his defection from UMNO, a BN component party, to PKR, the second largest party in Nizar's Perak PR coalition.^[11] Nasarudin said that his decision was fully supported by his constituents and reaffirmed that no monetary award was offered to him by PR.^[12] Nizar and Anwar supported and welcomed Nasarudin into the PR coalition and Anwar claimed more BN MLAs were going to defect to PR a few days later.^[13] Nizar then claimed that three more MLAs from UMNO would defect to PR^[14] After Nasarudin's resignation from UMNO, Perak UMNO chief and former MB Tajol Rosli resigned as Perak BN chairman and Perak UMNO chief, taking responsibility for the defection of Nasarudin.^[15] Soon after, UMNO Malaysia Deputy President, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, who is also the Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister took over as Perak UMNO chairman and Perak BN chairman from Tajol Rosli.^[16]

Crossover of Nasarudin and three other Perak assemblymen from PR, and effectively and controversially ended the PR majority government. The new Perak government, under Datuk Dr. Zambry Abdul Kadir, swore in some executive councillors, but Nizar refused to bow down, and continued his daily routines. The speaker of the assembly, V. Sivakumar then suspended all BN executive councillors for "contempt of assembly" after a complaint by one assemblyman.

On 11 May 2009, the Kuala Lumpur High Court ruled that the Sultan could not constitutionally remove Nizar from office, and that Nizar had always been the rightful Menteri Besar. Nizar announced his intention to immediately meet with the Sultan to request dissolution of the state assembly, while Zambry Abdul Kadir, the intended Barisan Menteri Besar, stated he would vacate the state secretariat as soon as possible.^[17] However, Nizar ultimately lost the legal proceedings when, in February 2010, the Federal Court ruled Zambry to be the lawful Menteri Besar.^[18]

2014 criminal defamation charge

Nizar was charged in a nationwide dragnet in August 2014 for criminal defamation for allegedly making a speech in 2012 prior to the 2013 general election saying "I was informed that Najib will call all the army generals to do something if BN lost in the general election."^[19]

Personal life

Nizar is the son of a Malay father and a Chinese mother, who was raised in a Malay-Muslim household from birth.^[20] Nizar is married to Datin Seri Fatimah Taat and they have eight children. Currently, he is residing in a rented home at Sungai Rokam, Perak after being asked to vacate the official residence for the Menteri Besar at Jalan Raja DiHilir by the state secretary, Datuk Abdul Rahman Hashim.^[21]

Election results

References