KUALA LUMPUR – Deputy Yang di-Pertuan Agong Sultan Nazrin Muizzuddin Shah has reminded the nation and its leaders that rulers in Malaysia have a responsibility to protect the federal constitution and the philosophy behind the enactment of its laws, while providing check and balance for the executive administrative body.
In his address during his book launch at Dewan Bahasa Pustaka this morning, the Perak ruler said Malay sultans must also understand the constitution with wisdom to ensure that justice does not fall by the wayside.
“A ruler has the responsibility to ensure that the constitution and the philosophy enacted behind it is understood and protected.
“Each term and each word enshrined in the constitution has its own meaning; and must be interpreted with wisdom, and studied intensively and accurately, to ensure that justice is not left behind.
“A king rules and does not govern but is responsible to monitor and ensure that there is fairness and justice in the administration – where it is organised and transparent – and must play the role of a wise arbitrator towards the legislation, executive and judiciary, to ensure there is check and balance while strengthening public confidence on democratic practices.”
During one of Malaysia’s recent political crises, then Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and some members of his cabinet were reprimanded by Yang di-Pertuan Agong Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah over the annulment of the emergency proclamation.
The kerfuffle saw then law minister Datuk Seri Takiyuddin Hassan allegedly issuing statements that the king does not have much purview over the constitution, particularly on the sacking of a prime minister who has lost majority in Parliament, as well as the Agong’s powers in annulling the emergency proclamation.
Sultan Nazrin said British political scientist Vernon Bogdanor in his book The Monarchy and the Constitution had posited that rulers are in a position to influence and determine administrative direction.
“The attention on constitutional powers granted to constitutional monarchs give a confusing image towards the role of contemporary constitutional monarchs because the primary role of a king is based on the constitution, but takes place in the day-to-day affairs of the government through influence rather than direct power.”
Sultan Nazrin then quoted 19th-century British journalist Walter Bagehot who argued that a constitutional monarch has three rights: to advise and give their views, to encourage and support, and to give reminders and warnings.
The Perak ruler also reminded rulers that they must be able to feel the pulse on the ground and the public sentiment in order to remain relevant and true to their people.
To do so, rulers must obtain and listen to the right and proper advice from the right advisers as the wrong or selfish advice benefiting only certain parties will alienate the ruler from the real public sentiment, as well as any issues they are suffering from.
He recalled the words of his late father, Sultan Azlan Muhibbuddin Shah, who said in an 1980 address after receiving an honorary law doctorate from Universiti Sains Malaysia: “As long as the public believes in the rulers and respects the royal institutions, the throne will never move from the palace to the museum.
“The throne is also not exempt from the laws of Allah – the same laws that have been determined for all mankind without taking into account whether one is of royalty or a member of the public.”
Sultan Nazrin’s new book is a compilation of his speeches from August 9, 2009, to October 5, 2016.
It is divided into four sections with eight speeches touching on the royal institution, seven on administration, 15 regarding Islam, and six on community and culture. – The Vibes, October 21, 2021
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