| The Chief Minister/ Menteris Besar |  |  |  |
| Posted by Raja Petra | |
| Tuesday, 11 March 2008 | |
| Here is a brief look at the new state chiefs in the four newly minted opposition-ruled states. All the nominees have been confirmed, except for Perak. PENANG: LIM GUAN ENG (DAP) PENANG'S incoming chief minister, Mr Lim Guan Eng, 47, has achieved what his father could not for more than 40 years as an opposition politician. The son of Democratic Action Party (DAP) chief Lim Kit Siang, he entered Parliament in 1986 after winning the Kota Melaka parliamentary seat with a 17,606-vote majority. As an MP, the younger Lim was a lighting rod for attention. He was arrested in 1994 over his criticism of government handling of allegations of statutory rape of one of his constituents. He was charged under the Sedition Act for causing 'disaffection with the administration of justice in Malaysia', and the Printing Presses and Publications Act for 'maliciously printing' a pamphlet that allegedly contained false information. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison, but was released after 12 months. He could not subsequently qualify for the 2004 election. This year, Mr Lim completed his a political comeback by winning both the Bagan parliamentary seat by 22,070 votes, and the Air Putih state seat in Penang by 4,061 votes. SELANGOR: ABDUL KHALID IBRAHIM (PKR)
He quit corporate life to enter politics, joining Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR), where he is currently its treasurer-general. On Dec 11 last year, he was among 29 opposition leaders and activists who were detained by police as they tried to march to Parliament House ahead of a vote on extending the tenure of the current Election Commission chairman. Tan Sri Khalid contested the Ijok by-election last year but lost to a BN candidate by 1,850 votes. The seat had fallen vacant after the death of the incumbent from a heart attack. This year, Tan Sri Abdul Khalid contested and won not only the Ijok state seat, but also the Bandar Tun Razak parliamentary seat by 1,920 and 2,515 votes respectively. PERAK: MOHAMMAD NIZAR JAMALUDDIN (PAS) MR MOHAMMAD Nizar Jamaluddin, an engineer by training, is also Perak's Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS) liaison secretary. Little else is known publicly about him. In the 2004 election, he stood and lost in Kuala Kangsar. This year, he won the Pasir Panjang state seat in Perak by 4,474 votes. Mr Mohammad Nizar's elevation to the state's top post seemed assured until PKR put forward another name for menteri besar. The three main opposition parties - the Democratic Action Party (DAP), PAS and Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) - will rule the state in a coalition. The DAP has already said it would forgo the right to name a menteri besar, even though it won the most seats of any single party in Saturday's state polls. Negotiations are continuing between PAS and PKR on a candidate to head the state government, although it is widely expected that Mr Mohammad Nizar will get the job. Perak's Sultan Azlan Shah will swear in a new menteri besar today. KEDAH: AZIZAN ABDUL RAZAK (PAS) MR AZIZAN Abdul Razak, 64, a graduate of the renowned Al-Azhar university in Egypt, stands among the Old Guard ulama (religious leader) of Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS). The Kedah PAS commissioner, who also holds a law degree from the University of Kent, was a former head of the syariah department of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. He first contested and won the Sala state seat in the 1999 general election, and retained it in 2004 when it was changed to Sungai Limau. This year, he retained the Sungai Limau state seat with an enhanced majority of 3,212 votes. In 2004, Mr Azizan won the seat with a mere 1,080-vote majority. |
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