A Discourse on the Love of Our Country.

Assalamualaikum and Good Day.

Many of us are supporters of limited monarchy. Of that I want to be clear right from the start. Malays like me have cultural affinity with the monarchy. We can’t and it is impossible to abandon our culture. In the Malay culture, the Malay rulers are an intrinsic part. Cut it off, we are cutting part of us off too.

Many of us are very against absolute monarchy. We reject the idea of a rule by an absolute monarch which often naturally led to tyrannical rule. The idea of having power concentrated in the hands of one person and to his successors is abhorrent to the ideals of a free man.

The ideals of free men in a free society are grounded on the belief of his own responsibility for his own destiny. To the free man- the government and by extension, king is my protector is no longer valid. To the free man, the country is the collection of individuals who compose it, not something over and above them. He regards government as a means, an instrumentality, neither a grantor of favours and gifts, nor a master or god to be blindly worshipped and served.

In Capitalism and Freedom, Milton Friedman echoed the ideals of the free man when he said; the free man will ask "What can I and my compatriots do through government" to help us discharge our individual responsibilities, to achieve our several goals and purposes, and above all, to protect our freedom? And he will accompany this question with another: How can we keep the government we create from becoming a Frankenstein that will destroy the very freedom we establish it to protect?

We secured our independence in 1957 as our affirmation and commitment to be freemen- free from the rule of despots and tyrants, free from a climate of fear and oppression. We wanted to be free from the feudal rule of olden days. Our founding fathers recognised that in order to progress, we had to abandon some of the old values, retained some and acquire new values. That was why we chose limited monarchy and we retained the monarchical institution as celebration of our cultural affinity.

To the Malays especially, they need to pay attention to the message left by one of the foremost Malay thinkers of the last century- Zainal Abidin bin Ahmad or Pendita Zaaba. The Malays, according to Zaaba inherited many of debilitating traits that made them lag behind in the race in life because for centuries before the coming of the British, they were subjected to the harsh and oppressive rule of feudal rulers. The Malays need to free themselves from the mental bondage of being attracted to old feudalism.

Freedom is a rare and delicate plant. Our minds tell us, and history confirms that the great threat to freedom is the concentration of power. Government is necessary to preserve our freedom, it is an instrument through which we can exercise our freedom; yet by concentrating power in political hands and in the hands of a single person, it is also a threat to freedom. Even though the men who wield this power initially be of-good will and even though they be not corrupted by the power they exercise, the power will both attract and form men of a different stamp.

How can we avoid the threat to freedom?

First, the scope of government, authority, rulers must be limited. Those in authority, who has the monopoly on legitimate coercive forces- their main function must be to protect our freedom both from the enemies outside our gates and from our fellow-citizens: to preserve law and order, to enforce private contracts, to foster competitive markets. Beyond this major function, government may enable us at times to accomplish jointly what we would find it more difficult or expensive to accomplish severally.

We must however hold those in authority in balance and check  by intentionally creating and being in the opposite forces that watches the excesses of those in legitimate authority. We should create and be part of a formidable countervailing movement be it in the form of private sector consisting of the business and corporate sector or political parties, or non-government associations or other social organizations who constitute a check on the powers of the governmental sector and an effective protection of freedom of speech, of religion, and of thought.

The state of Johor has dealt a blow against the ideals of the free man. The Housing and Real Property Bill tabled by the Johor government is at the same time revolutionary. At the moment, because of political convenience and expedience, UMNO and the Malays appear to support the return of an absolute monarchy in a stylised form (the bill). They think, they can bank on the monarchy to protect the Malays. If they think so, then it is an indictment on UMNO for failing to protect Malays so that it now needs another device to do the job.

It means to me, that in future it is possible for the Malays to carry out an uprising and recall their support to an absolute monarchy. It works both ways. Now, we support and if accepted, the arrangement is underlined with the implication- next time we can recall that support and perhaps even transform the monarchy into something less than it is today.

That should be a clear indication as to where we stand on the question of allegiance to the King.

We want the institution to exist, but we love this country and want nothing to do with the humiliation, oppression and repression which an absolute monarchy promises and represents. We are certainly not going back to the Malacca Sultanate. We are not having the absolute monarchy smothering our best democratic impulses. Let me be blunter, we don’t want to be subjects of tyrants.

Throughout history, we have seen that fawning before royalty produced "idolatry as gross and stupid as that of the ancient heathens.