817 VILLAGE CHIEFS TO SUE PERAK GOV'T

IPOH, MALAYSIA: Barisan Nasional may soon be flooded with another mountain of lawsuits in Perak, this time filed by each of the state's 817 Pakatan Rakyat-appointed village chiefs who are fuming over the sudden termination of their services last week.
The group have now laid down an ultimatum for Mentri Besar Datuk Dr Zambry Abd Kadir to apologise and retract the termination order within the next 48 hours or face the possibility of a hefty lawsuit for breach of contract.
According to them, they had each received the termination letters signed by their respective district officers last Thursday.
The letters stated that in accordance with a decision made by BN's state executive council on March 11, all the state's 817 village chiefs and their respective village development and security committees (JKKKs) were officially defunct from that day on (April 16).
About 40 of them who turned up for a press conference at the Perak DAP headquarters here today, said the termination orders were illegal for their contract of service only expired in 2010.
Former state executive councillor Nga Kor Ming said that when the group was elected into their posts last year, their appointment letters clearly stated that they were to serve for a two-year term beginning Aug 1, 2008, until July 31, 2010.
"However, they have only served for a mere eight months and already they are being terminated.
"Unless the village chiefs had committed some sort of criminal offence or something to that effect, they cannot be removed from their posts without reason," he said.
Courtesy: The Malaysian Insider