Istana Negara Clears Up The Confusion: It Is Not A TITAH

 

In short, Pakatan Harapan set the precedence for “Royal Intervention”, which violates the Constitution. And now His Majesty the Agong and the Raja-Raja Melayu are being placed in a very dangerous situation where questions are being asked whether Their Majesties/Highnesses wish to remain on the throne or contest the next general election.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Over the last two weeks since 16th June 2021, there has been a lot of confusion about who calls the shots, the Executive (meaning the Prime Minister), or His Majesty the Agong (meaning the non-executive constitutional monarch).

Today, Istana Negara issued a statement (READ BELOW) to clear up this confusion.

The statement is couched in “diplomatic” language, so many Chinese or Tamil school students may not understand what it means. In fact, even I had to read the statement three times to catch the drift, if you know what I mean (and if you do not that is your problem, not mine).

Anyway, just read these two paragraphs:

Perlu diperjelaskan juga di sini bahawa pandangan dan seruan-seruan yang dinyatakan ini merupakan pendirian Seri Paduka Baginda dan Duli-Duli Yang Maha Mulia Raja-Raja Melayu yang bertindak sebagai Raja Berperlembagaan berlandaskan prinsip keluhuran Perlembagaan Persekutuan dan kedaulatan undang-undangnya.

Susulan sesi menghadap ini dan lanjutan daripada sesi Perbincangan Khas Raja-Raja Melayu yang telah berlangsung pada 16 Jun, 2021 lalu, Seri Paduka Baginda menzahirkan pandangan bahawa persidangan Parlimen perlu diadakan secepat mungkin dengan mengikut garis panduan dan prosedur operasi standard COVID-19 yang ditetapkan oleh Kerajaan dan Parlimen Malaysia.

What that means is:

Firstly, the earlier statement that Istana Negara issued on 16th June 2021 is not a TITAH or Royal Decree, as Pakatan Harapan and some Umno people are alleging.

Secondly, the Agong and the Raja-Raja Melayu are acting as Raja Berperlembagaan berlandaskan prinsip keluhuran Perlembagaan Persekutuan dan kedaulatan undang-undangnya. In short, the Agong and the Raja-Raja Melayu are not acting as executives.

Thirdly, Parliament must follow the Covid-19 pandemic SOP as stipulated by the government. In short, Parliament must not violate the Covid-19 pandemic SOP.

Seri Paduka Baginda Yang di-Pertuan Agong realises that the earlier statement of two weeks ago has been manipulated and politicised by the anti-government elements, and that has dragged the Agong and the Raja-Raja Melayu into the political arena, which has triggered the Third Constitutional Crisis (the first two were in the mid-1980s and early 1990s).

Hence, today’s statement corrects that misperception that His Majesty the Agong is trying to play politician and has expressed his displeasure (murka) with Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin. Even if the Agong is displeased with the Prime Minister, His Majesty needs to keep it to himself and not make a public statement about it (like how Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain does).

Read also Kua Kia Soong’s article — “Malaysia Has Constitutional Monarchs, Not Executive Rulers” (READ HERE) — where he blames the opposition for violating the Federal Constitution of Malaysia by dragging His Majesty the Agong and the Raja-Raja Melayu into politics.

This is what Kua said:

“After the 2008 general elections, Pakatan Rakyat set the precedent by deferring the prerogative of selecting the menteri besar to the Sultan. They pussyfooted over the choice of menteri besar of Perak and deputy MB for Selangor by passing over this prerogative to the Sultans in the two states.

Instead of simply putting forward their candidates before the Sultan for endorsement, as is required in our democratic system, the Pakatan Harapan component parties bickered over their choice of MB and in so doing, demeaned our parliamentary democracy by passing the buck to the Sultans.

Again in 2011, the attempt by Pakatan Rakyat to pass a constitutional amendment in the Selangor state assembly to restore the power of appointing the state’s top three civil servants to the Sultan of Selangor was a retrograde step for the peoples’ movement. 

In their political games with Umno, the PR government seemed to have lost sight of the interests of the people and the aims of the Reformasi movement.

Those were bad precedents in which the peoples’ representatives passed on their prerogative to the Sultan. This pandering to the Sultan over the choice of menteri besar in Selangor and Perak was repeated in 2014 and unfortunately, this has added to the routinisation of “conventions” over the choice of menteris besar. 

The battle royale in Johor over the choice of menteri besar in 2019 was a tussle between the Pakatan government and the monarchy over a constitutional principle. 

Then prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad maintained that the role of appointing the new Johor menteri besar lay with the party that won the election, not with the Sultan of Johor. As our constitutional monarchy goes, the PM was right of course except that since the political tsunami of 2008, Pakatan Harapan had blinked twice in this battle royale.”

In short, Pakatan Harapan set the precedence for “Royal Intervention”, which violates the Constitution. And now His Majesty the Agong and the Raja-Raja Melayu are being placed in a very dangerous situation where questions are being asked whether Their Majesties/Highnesses wish to remain on the throne or contest the next general election.