Deferring to the Sultan: PR set precedent in 2008

Then Pakatan Rakyat set the precedent by deferring the prerogative of selecting the Menteri Besar to the Sultan.

COMMENT

Pakatan Rakyat seems to be caught between a rock and a hard place over the Menteri Besar selection. Whose fault is it? Historians do not have to go very far in time to see how they have found themselves in this quandary.

In 2008, Pakatan Rakyat set the precedent by deferring the prerogative of selecting the Menteri Besar to the Sultan. This is evidenced in this commentary I wrote in the online press on 14 March 2008:

“The DAP’s squabble over the choice of MB for Perak and Deputy MB for Selangor exposes a lack of integrity and professionalism…they should simply put forward their candidates before the Sultan for endorsement, as is required in our democratic system. Instead, the DAP leadership has continued with their tedious PAS-phobia posturing and in so doing, have demeaned our parliamentary democracy by passing the buck to the Sultans.

“In Selangor, we have seen a situation in which the DAP cannot blame PAS but can only blame itself. The choice of Deputy MP has become the arena of DAP’s intra-party squabble. Such factionalism in the DAP has been hitherto relegated to the gossip columns and the leadership is really showing contempt for the people of Selangor by dragging on the issue of Deputy MP. As in Perak, we have seen the DAP passing the buck to the Sultan, who now plays the role of executive ruler instead of a constitutional monarch!”

According to one of the most important writers on the subject of constitutional monarchy, Walter Bagehot, the monarchy merely symbolises the unity of the national or in our case, state community; from the point of view of political power, the sovereign in a constitutional monarchy has only three rights: “the right to be consulted, the right to encourage and the right to warn”.

Malaysia’s most distinguished jurist, Mohamed Suffian Hashim in “An Introduction to the Constitution of Malaysia”, spells out the role of the Rulers and Governors as ‘acting in accordance with advice’:

“A Ruler, though sovereign, has no autocratic powers. A Ruler and similarly a Governor must act in accordance with the advice of the state Executive Council or of a member of the Council (usually the Menteri Besar) acting under the general authority of the Council, except as is otherwise provided by the Federal or state constitution.

The Ruler or Governor is entitled, at his request, to any information concerning the government of the state which is available to the Executive Council. The Ruler or Governor is not a member of the Executive Council. Members of the Executive Council meet only among themselves, and thereafter the Menteri Besar or the Chief Minister submits the Executive Council’s advice to the Ruler or Governor…”

Nonetheless, a Ruler does have discretionary power in the performance of the following functions including: the appointment of the Menteri Besar; the withholding of consent to a request for the dissolution of the Legislative Assembly; request for a meeting of the Conference of Rulers; any function as the head of the Muslim religion or relating to the custom of the Malays; the appointment of an heir; the appointment of persons to Malay customary ranks, titles, etc; the regulation of royal courts and palaces.

How the soap opera unfolds from here will ultimately depend on how convention has been tempered by the precedent set in 2008 and the wisdom of the Sultan…

Kua Kia Soong is a Suaram adviser