A look at our monarchy

All patriotic Malaysians have a role to play in strengthening our national institutions, right from the educational curriculum to the quality of candidates in political parties and appointments to check and balance institutions, so that the Malay Rulers can perform their roles as envisaged by the framers of our Federal Constitution.

I fully agree: one of the reasons why so many people have different expectations of our monarchs is because their roles are not properly taught in schools. The rakyat have conflicting expectations of their Heads of State, but at the same time, every occupant of every national institution is now fully aware that the rakyat will judge them for their actions.

Tunku 'Abidin Muhriz, The Star

I FIRST met Datuk Zaid Ibrahim when he was a minister, being interviewed by my then employer.

When he resigned from the Government – “a refreshingly open and frank Cabinet departure on a matter of policy”, I wrote – he threw his energies into his commendable foundation, while I invited him to advise what was later to become IDEAS. He agreed, but this only lasted until his entry into PKR.

He still attended our launch, and some months later left PKR before heading what is now known as Kita.

At a dinner, where everyone was teasing him about his political fortunes, he mentioned a book he was working on.

I attended the launch and bought a limited hardback signed copy.

Ampun Tuanku contains what many Malaysians already think about our monarchy.

While he acknowledges that fellow citizens have different opinions, Zaid states what he believes constitutional monarchy should look like in Malaysia.

He has high hopes that if the monarchs can fulfil what he deems to be their proper functions, they will be respected and loved by the rakyat.

Zaid is critical of those who confer the monarchs with extra-constitutional powers, but he does himself imply that the monarchs should do more than what the constitutions prescribe.

For instance, he praises King Bhumibol of Thailand for building a reservoir and tackling the opium problem through a crop-growing initiative. I know of similar schemes mooted by our Rulers, but then they are accused of meddling with government policy.

He spends many pages arguing that the Perak power grab and the appointment of the Terengganu Mentri Besar after the last election were unconstitutional and lays much blame on the respective sultans.

But he could have acknowledged the pressure being brought to bear on elected representatives by party leaders such that a vote in the assembly would not reflect their actual position.

He could have also criticised the political parties whose undemocratic candidate selection is a major cause of crossovers in the first place.

He observes that many Malaysians are sentimental and desire a link to the past provided by the monarchy, and also states that education is key in shaping nation building.

I fully agree: one of the reasons why so many people have different expectations of our monarchs is because their roles are not properly taught in schools.

Some conservative royalists are keen to bestow super-human properties on royals that can be uncomfortable for royals themselves, while some legalists fail to appreciate how seriously the concept of daulat (and the expectations that follow) is still seen by many.

Some of the historical narrative would have benefited from a fuller treatment: the Malayan Union part could have highlighted the efforts of some Rulers in resisting MacMichael at the outset and subsequent actions to reverse the relevant treaties signed under duress.

The proposal for an independent mechanism to fund Head of State expenditure is interesting, and I am glad that he thinks junior royals should be able to pursue their own careers and not be prevented from working just because of their family connections.

He devotes a chapter to the Rulers and Islamisation and there is much to agree with here.

He suggests that the Rulers could help inject world-class scholarship into local Muslim thought: this is already happening.

The Oxford Fellow Datuk Dr Muhammad Afifi Al-Akiti has been appointed to the ancient office of Orang Kaya-Kaya Imam Paduka Tuan in Perak.

In Negri Sembilan, the palace hosted the signing of a memorandum of agreement for Egypt’s Al-Azhar University to open a faculty in the state.

This week, Prof Tariq Ramadan addressed 2,000 religious officials in an event co-organised by the Perlis Mufti’s office and attended by the Raja of Perlis.

Like all the other great institutions of this country, the Yang di-Pertuan Agong and the Rulers are dealing with appeals from civil society, demands from politicians, commentary from the legal fraternity and many other sectors.

The rakyat have conflicting expectations of their Heads of State, but at the same time, every occupant of every national institution is now fully aware that the rakyat will judge them for their actions.

Their Royal Highnesses accordingly take great care in those instances where they are proactive.

But compared to other national institutions, their time horizons are far greater: they are incumbents in lines dating back centuries and looking forward potentially centuries more.

It is therefore ungenerous and illogical to assume that they are not acting in the best interests of their states and people in the rare instances that they do step in.

And it is not as if the Rulers are acting in a vacuum: the reason why the rakyat appeal to the Rulers to intervene in many areas is because of weaknesses in other institutions.

Thus, while Zaid’s book is an important contribution, I wish it acknowledged that the Rulers cannot (re)forge a common understanding of their roles on their own.

All patriotic Malaysians have a role to play in strengthening our national institutions, right from the educational curriculum to the quality of candidates in political parties and appointments to check and balance institutions, so that the Malay Rulers can perform their roles as envisaged by the framers of our Federal Constitution: a document that took effect under the auspices of the Rulers themselves.

> Tunku ’Abidin Muhriz is president of IDEAS.