The Selangor Saga: Finding Closure?

Yesterday we learnt the Palace has rebuked Anwar Ibrahim. The Sultan has expressed his displeasure through a letter. The letter was made public. This is highly irregular. Making it public that is.

The King although vested with powers which are a formality does not translate into an opportunity for the sovereign to enact personal political preference. The King is non-political.

His advisors are making the King political and partisan.

The Sultan however has every right to be displeased. His displeasure is covered by his right to warn.  Anwar has been warned that he has erred. He has since apologised and sought forgiveness. What more do we want to exact from him? For more than 17 years, we have had his flesh. Do we now want his pint of blood?

Since we follow the Westminster style of government, according to the Victorian economist, Walter Bagehot, the sovereign has 3 rights: "the right to be consulted, the right to encourage, the right to warn".

According to Bagehot, a Sovereign would, over the course of a long reign, accumulate far more knowledge and experience than any minister. And perhaps the HRH Sultan of Selangor has accumulated more wisdom than any minister.

But his counsels ought to have done better other than encouraging a collision course between elected reps and the Sovereign. This is a dangerous path; the irresponsible advisors to the Sultan are encouraging the king to follow.

This will place the palace in confrontation with political parties, never mind if UMNO isn’t part of it at the moment.  But UMNO is eager to see a confrontation. As I said in an earlier article, this would ferment a martial mood among the Malays- our King is threatened, our honour is at stake. Let us mengamuk. Call in Perkasa, Isma, and the unregistered Malay groupings which are regarded as legal unlike the Penang Volunteers.  UMNO couldn’t wait to capitalise on this and take repressive actions.

But alas, I fear the Malay mind-set cannot be rescued by the cheapskate and alarmist allegation that the Malay monarchy is under attack. The Malay mind-set is not as simplistic as UMNO would have wished it were.

In appointing a chief minister, the Sovereign is guided by constitutional conventions. The main requirement is to find someone who can command the confidence of the Selangor DUN.  That is the only qualification.

This is normally secured by appointing the leader of the party with an overall majority of seats in the House, but there could still be exceptional circumstances when the King might need to exercise discretion to ensure that his Government is carried on.

When Khalid was called to the Palace, the King ought to have asked him if he can form a government. But Khalid wasn’t asked or before the King could ask, he offered his version of events. He could have turned down the offer by simply telling the truth- he does not have majority support and that Wan Azizah has it. Or he could have accepted what is a called an exploratory commission, returning later to report either failure or, success in securing a majority. He did not. He did not tell the truth. He did not want to free Selangor.

Is this the beginning of an assertive and adventurous monarchy? It will eventually lead to a clash between king and people. The people do not now include UMNO, because we know UMNO is aligning itself with the monarchical democrats. This group wants to see the King on their side so that they can use his stature to bulldoze through their political agenda.

I use the term monarchical democrats to refer to the political parties that uphold elections as means to secure power and then assign absolute- tending powers to its ally- the Malay Monarchy. It is a quid pro quo arrangement. We support near absolute powers and in return, you help us out. The monarchy is clearly showing that it is siding with UMNO.

The Monarchy is here to help and protect Malays. They are not here to protect UMNO and its leaders.

Let us not allow ingenious or disingenuous minds (depending on how we see them) torture the language and intent of our constitution. Ours is a parliamentary democracy. The king is a constitutional monarch. The wishes of the people as expressed through the conduct of elected representatives must reign supreme over any other wishes including the private wishes of the constitutional monarch. Let me repeat myself silly on this- we don’t have an absolute monarchy.

The whole purpose of our constitution at all levels is to give more liberal latitude to the people to exercise their discretion rather than freedom to the monarch. The means by which this purpose is to be achieved is reverential to the King as it ought to be- that it is to be presented to the King in the form of advice for ratification rather than rejection or alteration.

Therefore I respectfully submit that the wishes of the people as expressed through the conduct of their elected representatives have more authority that the wishes of the reigning constitutional monarch. The parties submitting only one name to the reigning constitutional monarch acted on better authority that the monarch himself who is bounded by the provisions of the constitution.

The principle is the same-whether it is the constitution of the nation or the state. The majority supported Wan Azizah as MB- that is a fact and it is not for anyone outside to judge the soundness of their motives. As to her qualifications- I think that is not in dispute. Perhaps she may not be able to engage in verbal jousting in the dewan- but in time she will do it. Tun Razak wasn’t an orator but was a master administrator- (the son is neither here nor there), the previous MBs of Selangor were not that qualified- Razali Ali was a penghulu and had Dr Mahathir Mohamad as brother in law, Hormat rafie was a band boy. The qualification to become MB is one who commands the confidence of the majority. If a trishaw puller commands such, he has the qualification.

Some people thought as I do, that Azmin the thinker, the methodical planner would be more suited to be the MB of Selangor- but the majority has a different opinion. So despite our own private reservations about Wan Azizah being a potentially effete leader( more at home at bringing packed foods and refreshments to PKR meetings and playing with lanterns), 30 of the elected reps signed a pledge in support of wan Azizah.

Unfortunately both parties are right in the way they looked at the political situation. A compromise may be necessary in order to avoid a collision course between elected reps and the monarchy. That could be very destabilising. That would require some accommodating gestures.

In the end, to avoid unnecessary collision course with the Sovereign, PKR may have to make some adjustments. The adjustments may involve endorsing someone else other than Azizah but from PKR. It will still get its person to be MB and more importantly, kick out the conniving Khalid. Also, to make the white of UMNO’s eyes whiter.