Nizar says the battle for Perak is still on.

The ousted Pakatan Rakyat (PR) administration is not about to slacken its grasp of the rope in the tug-of-war tussle for Perak.

The captain who once helmed the PR team in government, Datuk Seri Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin, said yesterday Pakatan never backs down from a fight and, if anything, was ever ready to flex its muscles and tug even harder on its end.

The purpose, he stressed however, was not just to win back Perak. “What we want now is the same as what we always wanted and what we will always have strength to fight for — that the rights of the people to choose their own government are returned.

“We are not greedy for power and we are not fighting to win back the government. We just want the people's rights returned and we are willing to struggle every step of the way for this,” he said emphatically.

He admitted that this stubbornness would result in more “state assembly fracas" and schedules packed with political dinners and ceramahs but said that this was “unavoidable”.

“Yes, we will be faced with a scenario of a police state again. We will see all this happening.

“But this is because they (the Barisan Nasional government) are illegitimate and we cannot recognise them. So yes, their illegitimate Speaker Datuk R. Ganesan will again summon an assembly sitting, and again we cannot recognise this,” he said.

The Bukit Gantang parliamentarian, however, added that he was not foolish enough to not recognise that support for the PR was waning as many felt that it was time for the tripartite coalition to quit fighting losing battles and start serving the people.

He said that the PR would always proceed with caution into every battle for "we do not want the world to laugh at us".

“Certainly, we are aware of this and of course we will work for the people. Things will be readjusted according to the situation but that does not mean that we will stop fighting,” he said.

Nizar said that for 2010, the Perak PR would re-engineer its efforts to tighten the relationship among the three coalition partners — DAP, PKR and PAS.

“In unity, we will find our strength. What we will look at now is to focus on tightening our bond through common policies especially in all our constituencies.

“For example, we are also looking at developing our women's wing,” he said.

He noted confidently that in time, the people would recognise the glaring differences between the rights PR was fighting for and the wrongs BN was committing.

“I do appeal, however, to the people not to lose hope or to lose faith in us. Do not overreact to certain situations and do not be so easily fooled into believing the BN's propaganda.

“Keep up your support for us,” he said.

Nizar promised that in return, the PR would always continue to act in the best interests of the people and stick to its promises of fairness and justice.

To the BN, Nizar said: “Behave professionally. In the coming age of intelligence, the people are no longer so easily fooled. They cannot be used as they have been before. Scrap all forms of racism in your political ideology or face rejection.” clara chooi/malaysiakini