WHAT did Tuanku Muhriz Tuanku Munawir actually do that led to UMNO bringing anarchy to Negeri Sembilan in trying to remove him as the ruler of the state?
For 18 years, he has been the Yang di-Pertuan Besar of Negeri Sembilan, and no one has heard a whiff of a scandal about him.
He doesn't beat up caddies with golf clubs; his children don't go around beating people or shouting about how great and rich they are; the palace in Seri Menanti is not turned into a casino for his birthday; neither he nor his family are seen partying with the Tatler crowd.
No, he has been as proper a constitutional monarch as could be.
So these chieftains who started this move to oust him on April 19 say he has committed grave offences according to their 200-year-old adat. What offences?
Until today, they have not defined these offences, and neither have they followed due process.
Egged on by a political courtesan who poses as an expert on this adat and who has betrayed every political leader who helped him, these chieftains — most of whom would never have succeeded in a competitive arena nor have been able to hold court intellectually even at the district level — brazenly committed treason, as defined by this same adat they claim to uphold.
Now, here comes the question that people ask about this unprecedented move in Malaysian history: why are these people so emboldened?
Who is providing them with air cover?
Is it Tunku Nadzaruddin, whose father was ruler of Negeri Sembilan for 41 years before Tuanku Muhriz? This is the man so desperately pushing himself, and being pushed by these chieftains, to replace Tuanku Muhriz. Very unlikely. He doesn't have that gravitas, conviction, or guts.
Is it Datuk Seri Zahid Hamidi, the president of UMNO and the deputy prime minister who is disloyal to his boss, the prime minister, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim? Not likely either, because wily as he is, there are limits to his intellect and, certainly, he lacks the integrity to provide that kind of protection.
Or was it Anwar Ibrahim, the prime minister who has allowed the situation in Negeri Sembilan to deteriorate to what it is today by his indecisiveness, his political dishonesty, and his activity? No. Definitely not.
Because the Anwar I know, the Anwar I have seen over more than four decades, is driven by politics and will only do what is advantageous to him. Anarchy and instability in Negeri Sembilan are not to his advantage.
So what did Tuanku Muhriz actually do to get someone so powerful that the chieftains, Tunku Nadzaruddin, and Rais Yatim feel they are untouchable?
Why haven't the police questioned anyone for sedition or treason? Why haven't they recorded a statement from that poor excuse for a man, Menteri Besar Datuk Ismail Lassim, who betrayed his sovereign exactly one day after pledging loyalty to him, swearing upon the Quran, and who has changed his version of events multiple times in the last three weeks? This easily frightened, weak, cowardly man is leading Negeri Sembilan for UMNO.
One thing I do know, though. When the Conference of Rulers was discussing the appointment of the Chief Justice to replace the highly respected Tun Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat, there were suggestions that newly appointed Federal Court judge Tan Sri Ahmad Terriruddin Mohd Salleh be given the job.
Tuanku Muhriz was very vocal in his opposition to this, saying that the appointment should be decided by the Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC), whose job it was to select suitably qualified persons who merit appointment as judges of the superior courts for the Prime Minister's consideration.
As far as he was concerned, it was not for the rulers to decide. Hence, through the process, Tun Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh was chosen and subsequently appointed as Chief Justice.
Subsequently, when there was a lot of chatter last year about granting a pardon or partial pardon to convicted former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, Tuanku Muhriz was again very vocal against it.
In his birthday speech in January this year, he voiced deep concern over the growing prevalence of corruption in Malaysia and expressed disappointment at those who continue to support individuals convicted of graft.
He warned that corruption is the foremost enemy of justice, trust, and the nation's future.
The ruler said he was shocked and disheartened that some people still rally behind individuals found guilty of serious corruption offences, as if such acts were acceptable or forgivable.
"Such attitudes reflect not only a failure to grasp the destructive impact of corruption on institutional integrity and society's moral foundations, but also call for serious reflection on one's faith, principles, and values."
Tuanku Muhriz's stance on these issues was not popular, especially with UMNO, which had been at the forefront pushing for Najib's release.
And, perhaps unwittingly, Tuanku Muhriz may have ruffled a couple of other feathers - more powerful than him - with his vociferous expressions on such issues.
There was no mistaking who he was referring to in his speech. It was the former prime minister.
I do not doubt that if Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad was Prime Minister, things would never have been allowed to get so bad. Likewise with his successor, Tun Abdullah Badawi — gentle, soft, but diplomatic in solving problems.
Those, Ismail Lasim, were men of honour. Not you, not your leaders of today.
So here we are today — on the cusp of a total breakdown in law and order — with politicians and chieftains of boisterous bluster running wild, with neither care nor fear for all the rules and laws they break.
Truly, God save Malaysia, for these mortals that lead us cannot. – September 23, 2026
Datuk Seri Kalimullah Hassan is the chairman of ECM Libra Foundation and a former NSTP group editor-in-chief
