The
Prime Minister’s campaign continued. He silenced the Rulers over the
issue of the 1987 ISA detentions; staged a hostile debate on the
monarchy in the 1990 Umno general assembly after the loss of Kelantan to
PAS; removed the Rulers’ immunity to prosecution following the
constitutional crisis of 1992-93; stripped away their flights,
outriders, and special hospital wards; and in 1994, with little
opposition, finally removed the need to obtain the Rulers’ assent for
State laws.
NO HOLDS BARRED
Raja Petra Kamarudin
The young should emulate Hang Tuah - Melaka CM
(Bernama)
-- Youths should emulate the legendary Malay warrior Hang Tuah, who had
a superior character and was loyal to king and country, Melaka Chief
Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Ali Rustam said last night.
He said that Hang Tuah was indomitable in defending the Melaka Sultanate from external attacks.
"His
leadership qualities were pronounced because his knowledge covered
religion and the art of silat," Mohd Ali said when opening the Hang Tuah
Festival at the Malay Melaka Sultanate Palace Museum at Bandar Hilir
here last night.
Also present were Information, Communications
and Culture Deputy Minister Datuk Maglin Dennis D'Cruz and Melaka State
Assembly Speaker Datuk Othman Muhamad.
Mohd Ali said Hang
Tuah used his mastery of several languages to help boost relations
between Melaka and other states and territories.
**************************************
Mahathir vs the Malay Rulers
By HUZIR SULAIMAN, The Star
In
the concluding instalment of the three-part series, Ruling the Rulers,
our columnist looks at the outcome of Dr Mahathir’s 1983 standoff with
the Sultans.
BY October 1983, Malaysians were becoming aware
that a constitutional crisis was in full swing. The Constitution
(Amendment) Bill 1983 had been passed by both houses of Parliament, but
the King, under pressure from his fellow rulers, was refusing to give
his Royal Assent to it.
The bill would remove the need for the
King to assent to legislation, and would similarly do away with the
need for Sultans to assent to State laws. It would also take away the
King's power to declare an Emergency and give it to the Prime Minister.
The
Rulers publicly rejected these amendments after a meeting in Selangor
on Nov 20, 1983. When the public became aware that a storm was brewing,
Dr Mahathir’s administration initiated a propaganda war to put pressure
on the Rulers.
There took place a “series of illegal public
rallies held by Umno in Alor Star, Bagan Datoh, Seremban, Batu Pahat,
Malacca, for the Prime Minister with reports of officially inflated
crowd figures?.” as Lim Kit Siang would later describe them in the Dewan
Rakyat.
These rallies, staged in order to generate sympathy
for the Government’s cause, were illegal in the sense that police
permits were neither sought nor granted.
Whether or not the
crowd figures were inflated by the Umno-aligned media – it is true that
they generally reported these events in positive terms – it is clear
that the 1983 rallies were exciting evenings, with republican sentiments
on everyone’s minds, if not exactly on their lips. One of the most
arresting images in Rais Yatim’s Faces in the Corridor of Power is a
photograph of two youths at one such rally. They are wearing T-shirts
bearing Dr Mahathir’s picture and the words “DAULAT RAKYAT”.
Although
the Prime Minister denied wanting to abolish the monarchy, at these
rallies “the historical moment of unfolding Malay nationalism was
relived as a continuing battle of Malay popular sovereignty against
royal hegemony,” as Khoo Boo Teik writes in Paradoxes of Mahathirism.
At
a rally in Alor Star on Nov 26, Dr Mahathir declared that “It was the
rakyat who had protested against the Malayan Union after the Second
World War; it was the rakyat who wanted a democratic system that would
enable them to choose their own leaders. It was always the people who
had fought for their destiny.”
At the largest rally, in Batu
Pahat, Dr Mahathir told the crowds, in a thinly veiled dig at hereditary
rulers, “We weren’t born Ministers ? We’re up here because we were
chosen by all of you.”
The propaganda war continued, with
tales of royal extravagance and impropriety emerging. The Government
leaked the fact that they were compiling dossiers on the Sultans. RTM
announced they were preparing a year-long TV series on the Rulers and
the Constitution.
Yet pro-royal rallies took place too –
especially in Kelantan and Terengganu, where Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah was
rumoured to be responsible for them – and they drew large crowds,
although they went unreported by the media.
Upping the ante,
the Umno Youth executive council called for the Government to gazette
the Constitution (Amendment) Bill without waiting for the King's assent,
effectively daring the Rulers to challenge it in court. Dr Mahathir did
not immediately adopt this strategy, but held this “nuclear option” in
reserve while behind-the-scenes negotiations continued with the Rulers.
Public
opinion was divided over the issue. Rural Malays tended to support the
Rulers; urban Malays, while not uncritical of Mahathir’s strategies and
motives, were more ready to accept egalitarian ideas.
As for
the Chinese community, R.S. Milne and Diane K. Mauzy note in Malaysian
Politics Under Mahathir that “One might have expected that, since the
rulers and the Agung were symbols of ‘Malayness’ the Chinese would feel
little loyalty to them. Paradoxically, they were quite pro-royalty,
because they did not really trust Malay politicians. Indeed, they viewed
the Agung and the rulers as protectors of their vital interests.”
There
seemed to be no way out of the impasse except by compromise – which is
what happened. The Rulers agreed to the Constitutional (Amendment) Bill
1983 on the condition that many of its provisions were modified or
repealed immediately with the introduction of the Constitution
(Amendment) Bill 1984.
The new bill, passed in January 1984,
meant that the King could now only delay a piece of non-money
legislation for a month. It then had to be sent back to Parliament with
his objections. If the King still opposed it in the form in which
Parliament then passed it, he could only delay it for another month
before it was gazetted as law.
The King could therefore only delay legislation for up to two months before it became the law of the land.
But
this principle was no longer extended to the State level: Sultans still
needed to assent to State bills before they became law, which was an
important symbolic victory. Most importantly for those who feared Dr
Mahathir’s supposed plan to concentrate power in his own hands, the bill
removed the proposed ability of the Prime Minister to declare an
Emergency by himself, and restored it to the King.
Nonetheless,
Dr Mahathir saw himself as having won, declaring at a victory rally in
Malacca that the feudal system had ended. He had brought his theatrical,
confrontational, unapologetically antagonistic style to a high-stakes
arena and had, by some accounts at least, triumphed over the Malay
Rulers.
He quickly moved to consolidate his gains. Stories had
been circulating that the head of the army, Jen Tan Sri Mohd Zain
Hashim, was opposed to Mahathir’s approach and believed the armed
force’s loyalty lay with the Rulers. Mohd Zain took early retirement.
This was followed by a reorganisation of the army and some 500 other
early retirements and dismissals.
When the independent-minded
Sultan of Johor took over as Yang di-Pertuan Agong in 1984, some feared
(and some hoped) that royal activism would reassert itself.
As
Roger Kershaw writes in Monarchy In South-East Asia: Faces of Tradition
in Transition, “From the beginning, the Agong had made no secret of his
contempt for Mahathir on the grounds of his mixed blood, calling him,
to his face, ‘Mamak’ (a derogatory nickname for those of Indian Muslim
ancestry). [?] But Dr Mahathir had proved more than a match for this
difficult sovereign. Having got the measure of the King’s essential
vanity and exhibitionism, he prudently pandered to it, even to the
extent of placing a more convenient Royal Malaysian Airforce helicopter
at his permanent disposal?.”
Through this and other measures,
Dr Mahathir maintained good relations with the new King, enlisting him
in his 1987 move against the judiciary, the effects of which are still
felt today.
The Prime Minister’s campaign continued. He
silenced the Rulers over the issue of the 1987 ISA detentions; staged a
hostile debate on the monarchy in the 1990 Umno general assembly after
the loss of Kelantan to PAS; removed the Rulers’ immunity to prosecution
following the constitutional crisis of 1992-93; stripped away their
flights, outriders, and special hospital wards; and in 1994, with little
opposition, finally removed the need to obtain the Rulers’ assent for
State laws.
Looking back, we can see how the bars of the yellow silk cage began to go up in 1983, closing in year after year.
Should
we find it surprising, then, that after 25 years the tigers within
should want to break free? Can we not understand that the Rulers might
want to regain what has been lost?
And here is the hardest
question of all: without giving up our democratic ideals, in a cynical
and disloyal age, can we find a way to let our Rulers rule?
Huzir Sulaiman writes for theatre, film, television, and newspapers.
KUALA
LUMPUR, Sept 25 — Pakatan Rakyat (PR) is resolved to end the ongoing
squabble over PAS’s hudud laws initiative during its leadership council
meeting on Wednesday.
It
was a Hari Raya-cum ceramah session and was supposed to start at 9pm,
but as early as 8.30pm, more than 100 Perkasa members were already at
the side of the main road about 60 metres from the stage holding a noisy
gathering. 
But
when the Perkasa members attempted to move closer to the ceramah stage
and were stopped by PAS supporters, then control - as well as stones and
mineral water bottles - went up in the air.
PAS Seremban deputy chief Ghazali Mat Som - one of the event organisers - expressed his regret over the incident.
“He hurt the feeling of many army personnel.