Thesun 2009-02-17 Page11 Of Daulat And Hang Jebat

theSun

11

| TUESDAY FEBRUARY 17 2009

speak up! letter Scene: Dome, KLCC CHONG: Never before have I read so much and heard so much about penderhaka, treason, lese majeste and rebel. These last few weeks the newspapers are replete with such words. By the way Cikgu what is the actual meaning of penderhaka? Zain: Am I back in the classroom? Mohan: You’ve never left it, Cikgu. Anyway Chong, the root word is durhaka which can mean to disobey or to rebel. Azman: Taboo for the Malays. Mohan: A worst thing that can happen to a son is when he is called or branded an anak durhaka. Azman: It is a taboo thing for a Malay to durhaka as encapsulated in the phrase pantang Melayu mendurhaka. Zain: I think they say it only when it is convenient for them to do so. Mohan: As I was saying when you durhaka against your king you are said to commit lese-majesty. A person who does that is a pendurhaka. Zain: In the days when kings and sultans had absolute power to be branded a pendurhaka was the end of you. You are dead meat. Everyone would be out looking for you. Killing a pendurhaka was not a crime and what more you could even receive an award. Chong: In Thailand lese-majesty is still a major crime. You can’t go about insulting the king, his queen and his son. You’ll end up in serious trouble if you do. Mohan: Very true. Thailand’s constitution says: “No person shall expose the King to any sort of accusation or action.” Also

Of daulat and Hang Jebat the Thai criminal code lawyer Karpal Singh to further states in Article challenge in court the 112: “Whoever defames, Perak sultan’s sacking insults or threatens the of the Pakatan Rakyat King, Queen or the Heirgovernment. He is a apparent, shall be punpendurhaka, he is beished with imprisonment ing disrespectful. of three to 15 years.” Zain: No Azman. Azman: Don’t we have He is not. And Karpal similar laws in Malaysia? wasn’t being disreSomeone told me we spectful at all when he have. You cannot show said he was going to WhatTheySay disrespect to the king and challenge the sultan’s by Zainon Ahmad the state rulers. And you decision in court. If cannot go around saying you are talking about you want to take legal being disrespectful to action against a state ruler. the rulers just remember the two Zain: You must have been misso-called constitutional crises and led. Unfortunately, many people the nationwide rallies that ran also have. There are no such laws. down rulers in efforts to get them Am I right counsellor? to agree to have their immunity Mohan: Absolutely. For instance trimmed. Remember the Malay in 1966, Datuk Stephen Kalong films on TV during that time. All Ningkan challenged the proclamamaking the rulers look bad. One tion of an emergency in Sarawak of them was Nujum Pa’Belalang. It by the Yang diPertuan Agong. was about how a village layabout Chong: Isn’t that lese-majesty? fooled the ruler and later marMohan: No. Remember our ried his daughter. Of course there much respected late Lord President were those who said the timing Tun Muhamed Suffian Hashim. He was coincidental. But a series of said a ruler is liable especially in them? And remember what was view of the fact that in his oath said about the ruler of Terengganu of office he has declared that he when he rejected the prime miniswould carry out his duty in accordter’s choice of mentri besar? Think ance with the law, which means Azman, think. he is subjected to the law. Others Azman: But the rulers represent have since said that the rulers have the Malays, Malay culture, Malay always been liable anyway. They rights. And by challenging the sulare constitutional monarchs. tan he is challenging the Malays. I Azman: What you guys are sayam angry. ing is that it is all right for veteran Zain: Don’t be. While a ruler

represents all that is Malay he is also head of state. Karpal is only challenging the ruler’s prerogative as head of state. Azman: Let me remind you of Hang Jebat. He was probably the first pendurhaka. And he was killed. Then there was laksamana Megat Sri Rama who stabbed his ruler. With his last bit of strength the dying ruler flung his kris at his killer. Grass sprouted out of the wound on laksamana’s leg and he died a painful death days later. Zain: Those were part of the legend to add to the ruler’s daulat – the aura of magical power. The Malay Annals tells of a story of the first ruler from whom all others are descended. He came from a magical kingdom and was descended from Alexander the Great through a Raja Chulan from India. Mohan: Isn’t daulat sovereignty? Zain: Not in those days. In those days a ruler’s daulat was the aura of magical power that he was said to possess and that surrounded him. Chong: No grass sprouted out of Ningkan’s ears? Zain: Very funny. Anyway today our rulers are constitutional monarchs and their power or daulat rests with the rakyat. So Azman please tell your friends that the Malays are not threatened just because Karpal said he wanted to institute legal action against the ruler. They are threatened by other things.

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Sultan has ‘reserved powers’ MANY are unaware that the Sultan of Perak has what is called “reserved powers”. This “reserved powers” are the Sultan’s inherent powers that he inherits which he may use upon his discretion at any one time to prevent any crisis that might jeopardise the stability and peace of his state. After the general election last year, the Raja of Perlis and the Sultan of Terengganu also used their “reserved powers” to appoint mentris besar of their choice, even though it went against the choice of candidates of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. Every state in the federation has its own constitution besides our Federal Constitution. However, literal interpretation of each state’s constitution without taking into account the rulers “reserved powers”, will only cause much dissatisfaction and confusion. These “reserved powers” are ambiguous and surrounded by grey areas in every state’s constitution because it is not evoked at all times. Therefore, when a situation arises and the rulers evoke these powers, they seem to have gone against the democratic will of the people. We must always realise that the rulers do play an important role in maintaining harmony among various races under their care. Vijay Shanmugam Taiping