The Democracy Tree ( Bahasa Malaysia: ) is a rain tree in Malaysia, named for its role in the

2009 Perak constitutional crisis The 2009 Perak constitutional crisis was a political dispute in Malaysia over the legitimacy of the Perak state government formed in February 2009. It began when three Pakatan Rakyat state legislators defected, causing a collapse of the state gover ...

. It is noted as the venue where 27

Perak Perak () is a state of Malaysia on the west coast of the Malay Peninsula. Perak has land borders with the Malaysian states of Kedah to the north, Penang to the northwest, Kelantan and Pahang to the east, and Selangor to the south. Thailand's ...

state lawmakers from

Pakatan Rakyat The People's Alliance ( ms, Pakatan Rakyat; abbrev: PR) was an informal Malaysian political coalition and successor to Barisan Alternatif (BA). The political coalition was formed by the People's Justice Party (PKR), Democratic Action Party (DAP ...

comprising Democratic Action Party,

Parti Islam Se-Malaysia The Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS; ms, Parti Islam Se-Malaysia; ms, ڤرتي إسلام سمليسيا, label= Jawi, script=arab, italic=unset) is an Islamist political party in Malaysia. As the party focused on Islamic fundamentalism, PAS's ...

and

Parti Keadilan Rakyat The People's Justice Party ( ms, Parti Keadilan Rakyat , often known simply as KEADILAN or PKR) is a reformist political party in Malaysia, formed in 2003 by a merger of the National Justice Party and the older Malaysian People's Party. The ...

, held an 'emergency assembly' on 3 March 2009. The tree was located about 100m from the Perak Darul Ridzuan building which houses the

state assembly State Assembly is the name given to various legislatures, especially lower houses or full legislatures in states in federal systems of government. Channel Islands States Assembly is the name of the legislature of the Bailiwick of Jersey. The Baili ...

. The assembly was held under the tree by the state assemblymen after being blocked by the police from entering the premises. Dr. Zambry, from

UMNO The United Malays National Organisation (Malay: ; Jawi: ; abbreviated UMNO () or less commonly PEKEMBAR), is a nationalist right-wing political party in Malaysia. As the oldest continuous national political party within Malaysia (since its in ...

, and recently suspended assembly secretary Abdullah Antong Sabri had claimed that the sitting was invalid because it did not have the consent of

Sultan Azlan Shah Sultan Azlan Muhibbuddin Shah ibni Almarhum Sultan Yussuff Izzuddin Shah Ghafarullahu-lah ( Jawi: ; 19 April 1928 – 28 May 2014) was the 34th Sultan of Perak and served as the ninth Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia from 26 April 1989 to 25 ...

Assembly

The 27 assemblymen who turned up – all from the

– stood around

V. Sivakumar Sivakumar s/o Varatharaju Naidu ( ta, வ. சிவகுமார், Va. Civakumār; born 5 December 1970), better known as V. Sivakumar, is a Malaysian politician who has served as the Minister of Human Resources in the Pakatan Harapan (P ...

, the speaker, who had donned his speaker's robe. The sitting convened at 10.20am.

Motions

Three motions were passed within 15 during the 'emergency assembly'. The motions are: *to support Datuk Seri

Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin Dato' Seri Ir. Mohammad Nizar bin Jamaluddin (born 17 March 1957) is a Malaysian politician and engineer who has served as Member of the Perak State Executive Council (EXCO) in the Pakatan Harapan (PH) and Barisan Nasional (BN) state admini ...

as the rightful Menteri Besar, tabled by Titi Serong assemblyperson Khalil Idham Lim. *to dissolve the State Assembly, tabled by Teja assemblyperson Chang Lih Kang. *to adopt the order made by the Rights and Special Privileges Committee to suspend Datuk Dr

Zambry Abdul Kadir Zambry bin Abdul Kadir ( Jawi: ; born 22 March 1962) is a Malaysian politician who has served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Pakatan Harapan (PH) administration under Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and Senator since December 2022. H ...

and his six executive councillors, tabled by

Sitiawan Sitiawan (alternate spelling: Setiawan; origin: from Malay, a portmanteau of '' Setia Kawan'', meaning "Loyal Friend") is a mukim and town in Manjung District, Perak, Malaysia. The region spans an area of . In the year 2000, the population w ...

assemblyperson

Ngeh Koo Ham Dato' Ngeh Koo Ham (, Bàng-uâ-cê: ''Ngà̤ Kō̤-háng''; born 29 September 1961), also known as James Ngeh, is a Malaysian politician and lawyer who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Beruas since March 2008. He served as S ...

Plaque

On 8 March 2009, a plaque was subsequently placed by the assemblymen to commemorate the assembly sitting. Many local residents came to take photographs with the plaque and tree. However a few days later, the plaque was found vandalized repeatedly before finally removed by the Ipoh City Council (MBI). On 22 March 2009, five pieces of the broken plaque destroyed by vandals were auctioned away by the

to supporters. A total of RM42,900, excluding donations, was raised in the auction.

Aftermath

A DVD featuring the tree was released during ceramahs but it was subsequently banned.

Tebing Tinggi Tebing Tinggi Deli or more commonly simply ''Tebing Tinggi'' ( Jawi: ) is a city near the eastern coast of Northern Sumatra, Indonesia. It has an area of 38.44 km2 and a population at the 2010 Census of 145,180, which grew to 172,838 at the ...

assemblyman Ong Boon Piow was arrested for allegedly violating the Film Censorship Act 2002 for “manufacturing, circulating, distributing, and displaying the content of the DVD without first getting a ‘B’ certificate from the Film Censorship Board.

References

{{coord missing, Malaysia

External links

Democracy Under a Tree
Ipoh Political history of Malaysia Individual trees in Malaysia Democracy