8/14/2019 The Sun Malaysia Cover (24 Mar 2008)

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was not allowed to enter thepalace, handed over the letterto Regency Advisory Councilsecretary Shafie Ali.

Met by reporters, Rosol said theletter reiterated the support of the22 BN elected representatives forthe re-appointment of Idris as thementri besar and rejected Ahmadsappointment.

Our support for Datuk SeriIdris is unanimous. There is no

other person qualified to hold

the mentri besars post, Rosol said,adding that Ahmads appointmentwas invalid.

He said that if Ahmad wereto proceed with taking the oathof office, he would be violatingthe party rules and action couldbe taken against him, includingexpulsion from the party.

Later, at a separate pressconference held at the mentribesars official residence,Seri Iman, Rosol said the 23

KUALA TERENGGANU:Despite the threat ofexpulsion from Umno,state assemblyman forKijal Datuk Ahmad Said

received a letter of appointment asthe new Terengganu mentri besarfrom the Regency Advisory Councilat a closed-door ceremony at IstanaTetamu here yesterday morning.

Ahmad, 51, received the letterof appointment from council headTengku Sri Panglima Raja TengkuBaderulzaman, witnessed by twoother council members TengkuSri Laksamana Raja TengkuSulaiman Sultan Ismail and formerFederal Court judge Datuk AbdulKadir Sulaiman.

The ceremony was attended bysix members of the council, StateSecretary Datuk Mokhtar Nong,State legal adviser Mohamad SekeriMamat and state police chief DatukAyub Yaakob.

According to Terengganu palaceofficial Mohd Yasim Awang, thedate for the swearing-in of the newmentri besar has yet to be fixed.

In an immediate response,Prime Minister Datuk SeriAbdullah Ahmad Badawi defended

his choice of former mentri besarDatuk Seri Idris Jusoh for the post,saying the appointment of anyoneother than Idris is unconstitutionaland invalid.

He said this was because themajority of the assemblymen inTerengganu want Idris, the Jertihassemblyman, to be reappointedthe mentri besar.

There will be no changeto this, Abdullah said afterpresenting the prizes to the F1winners yesterday evening.

The ceremony in which Ahmadreceived his letter of appointmentwas held with policemenmaintaining tight security outsidethe palace grounds. It started at8.20am and ended about eightminutes later.

All members of the media,except for the photographer and TV

cameraman from Bernama, wereprevented from entering the palace.Ahmad was not reachable after theevent.

Just before that, 22 BarisanNasional state assemblymen, ledby state Umno liaison committeesecretary Datuk Rosol Wahid, whoopposed Ahmads appointment asthe mentri besar, arrived at IstanaTetamu to hand over a letter ofprotest against the appointment.

Rosol, who

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Abdullah: Its

unconstitutionalassemblymen (including Idris),who protested against Ahmadsappointment, had threatened toresign to enable a re-election totake place if there was no solutionto the impasse.

We have to think of the people.If, within two weeks, a stategovernment cannot be formedand function, then theres no pointfor us being the peoples electedrepresentatives. The 23 of us arewilling to step down if that is thebest solution to the issue, he said.

Asked if their action to hand

over the protest letter could createa rift with the Terengganu palace,Rosol said it did not arise as theyhad acted in accordance with theFederal Constitution.

We have also received themandate and support of thepeople, he said.

Idris, meanwhile, said he wouldseek the advice of his lawyer onthe appointment of Ahmad beforetaking any action.

I know the prime minister anddeputy prime minister are togetherwith me ... I have the support of thetop party leadership as well as thestate assemblymen and the people... that is important, he said.

On his relationship with Ahmad,Idris said Ahmad had been a goodfriend for a long time. However,since Ahmads name was touted asthe potential candidate for the post

of mentri besar, Ahmad had notcontacted him at all.On Saturday, Umno secretary-

general Datuk Seri Tengku AdnanTengku Mansor said disciplinaryaction could be taken againstAhmad if he were to accept thementeri besars post as he wouldbe going against the instruction ofAbdullah, who as the BN chairmanand Umno president, had issued aletter nominating Idris to the post. Bernama

Raikkonen reigns at SepangPRIME Minister Datuk SeriAbdullah Ahmad Badawihands the winners trophyto Ferraris defending world

champion Kimi Raikkonen,who cruised to victory atthe Malaysian Grand Prix inSepang yesterday. RobertKubica finished secondin his BMW and Heikki

Kovalainen was third in hisMcLaren Mercedes-Benz.

Lewis Hamilton, who wonin Australia last week, battled

through a topsy-turvy raceand various problems withpit-stops and tactics, to finishfifth behind Jarno Trulli in aToyota.

It was Raikkonens seventh

win for Ferrari and his secondwin in Malaysia. It was apretty easy race, he said. Wehad quite a difficult weekend

in Australia and we were not100% sure it was going to beany different here.

Reports Back PageandPage 34

Ahmad receives his letterof appointment from TengkuSri Panglima Raja TengkuBaderulzaman.

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