Politicising Agong’s birthday

There is nothing wrong in Malaysians criticising the Agong's speech and to question the election results as both actions are their rights guaranteed by the federal constitution.

COMMENT

Have our rulers lost touch with the grassroots reality? The ‘glass wall’ that separates the rulers from the rakyat so often leads to their failure in listening to the rakyat and their problems.

At best, the rulers as the rakyat see it symbolise the Malay heritage; reality however has proven that politics always supercedes the monarchy, many a times at the expense of the rakyat’s welfare.

Apart from the time and again reminders to the people to keep away from the issue of the Malay rights and privileges, the rakyat has yet to recall a subject or issue that has affected the country’s rulers to the extent that they make it a priority to raise the matter at the available platform.

One good avenue which avails itself to the rulers is the speech they make in conjunction with the celebration of their official birthday.

Sadly, this platform too has been hijacked by the BN government to push for an agenda of their own.

One example is the speech made by the 14th Yang di-Pertuan Agong, Tuanku Abdul Halim Mu’adzam Shah, which was broadcast live on May 31, the eve of the official celebration of his birthday.

In his speech, the Agong called on Malaysians to accept the 13th general election results for the sake of the country’s peace, stability and security.

However, to PKR de-factor leader Anwar Ibrahim, the Agong’s speech was in no way going to halt his plans in going ahead with is Black 505 rally to protest against the alleged rigging of the May 5, 2013 general election.

The June 15-planned rally was postponed to June 22 due to the unavailability of the venue Padang Merbok on the previous date.

But to the BN sycophants, Anwar’s insistence in executing the rallies is nothing short of his disrespect for the Agong.

Anwar however begs to differ for he believes the Agong’s speech was not worth heeding for it was fabricated by the Prime Minister’s office.

Anwar alluded that the BN federal government had used the Agong’s speech to ‘pressure’ the rakyat to accept last month’s general election results; this stand has gone on to earn Anwar the ‘traitor’ tag, with some BN MPs going so far as to suggest that an Anti-Treason Act be put in place to ‘safeguard’ the Agong.

Constitution reigns supreme
The irony of it all however is that the Agong’s speech enjoys no immunity and can be questioned, said constitutional expert Abdul Aziz Bari.

Indeed, who better to ‘separate the wheat from the chaff’ if not Abdul Aziz, the former law lecturer at International Islamic University Malaysia who courted controversy in 2011 when he described the Selangor Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah’s intervention in a raid by the Selangor Islamic Religious Department at the Damansara Utama Methodist Church as unusual and inconsistent.

And the very Umno MPs who then accused Abdul Aziz of treason are today creating a palaver by crying foul over Anwar’s gumption to question the Agong’s and labelling the PKR adviser a traitor.

Abdul Aziz matter-of-factly says there is nothing wrong in Malaysians criticising the Agong’s speech and to question the election results as both actions are their rights guaranteed by the federal constitution.

“We must always remember that in this country, it is the constitution that reigns supreme and everybody, including the Agong, is subject to it.

“No one, and this includes the Agong, has the power to deny the rights guaranteed under the country’s laws and constitution.

“These include the right to question the election results, so long as this is done in accordance with the constitution,” he told Malaysiakini.

But then as before, Umno-BN is paying no heed to Abdul Aziz’s words, the latter who like many Malaysians holds the view that the Umno-BN government has spared no effort in distorting the notion of the Agong as the symbol of authority even to the point of condemning those MPs who criticised the Agong’s speech.

“As in any Westminster system, such a speech is essentially the government’s speech and policy even though it is read out by the monarch. As such the criticism is neither disrespectful nor seditious.”

Hence, Anwar did nothing wrong by questioning the Agong’s speech.

Politicising Agong’s birthday

The concern and worry as far as Abdul Aziz goes is the shenanigans of Umno-BN in abusing the Agong’s birthday, turning it into a political stint.

The law expert wants Umno to refrain from misusing the Agong’s birthday to put across a political agenda.

“I think the office of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong as well as the Conference of Rulers need to distance themselves from the political stance taken by the government.

“Constitutional monarchy does not necessarily mean the King must follow everything the government has to say; the benchmark is the constitution and the values it contains.

“The speech prepared by the government for the Agong on this particular occasion does not fit within these ideals,” Abdul Aziz said.

With much damage done, will BN and in particular Umno be ‘respectful’ enough in listening to the expert and forgo ways and means to act as the ‘Rock of Gibraltar’ between the rakyat and the monarchy, further alienating the duo?

Jeswan Kaur is a freelance writer and a FMT columnist.