The days of kings and emperors ended at World War One. Since then, we have never heard of a show down in power struggle between the monarch and the people, for the simple reason that the former understands that the existence of monarchy is at the goodwill of the people. It is for this reason that Spain’s King Carlos quickly abdicated recently in favour of his son, following a spate of personal scandals that caused his popularity to slip. He knew that that if he didn’t, the crown might have been at risk of being abolished altogether through a simple vote by the people. Malaysia is unique in modern history in that we not only have nine monarchs, but all are preserved remarkably well since independence half a century ago. This could only be so through the system of constitutional monarchy that we have adopted, where the sultans are kept meticulously above politics and administration, and where the people have full power to govern themselves through the democratic system. Through such a system, there is no chance of clash of power between the monarch and the people. Unfortunately, such line of demarcation of power between the sultans and the people has been blurred in recent years due to political exploitation by the ruling coalition to enhance its position against challenges from the opposition. And the current Selangor MB crisis has to be viewed in that context. Needless to say that the casualties of such confrontation could only be both the institution of constitutional monarchy and the institution of parliamentary democracy, both of which are invaluable to the wellbeing of this country. It is hoped that the Sultan of Selangor would exercise his utmost circumspection in making his final decision at this critical time so as to avert damage to both these institutions.
Posted on: Sun, 21 Sep 2014 09:34:59 +0000
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