A portion of an article extracted from http://mt.m2day.org/2008/content/view/21764/84/
A British Minister on a visit to this country thought that Malaya was still a British colony. Maybe it was so back in the old days. But Malaya had already been given self-rule one minute pass midnight of 31st August 1957. Should a Minister be allowed to meet the Prime Minister? Yes, if the Prime Minister was a Prime Minister of a British Colony. But Malaya was not. It was already an independent nation. Furthermore, would the British Prime Minister agree to a meeting with a Malayan Minister? Is not proper protocol that a Minister meets a Minister and the Prime Minister a Prime Minister? And, to top it all, it was someone gate-crashing the office of the Prime Minister without a prior appointment.
But such was the arrogance of the British Minister who forgot that Malayans no longer took orders from Caucasians. And when he was denied entry to the Prime Minister’s office he was hopping mad. In his meeting with the Agong, he brought up the issue of the kurang ajar Prime Minister and suggested that His Majesty should sack this most disrespectful Tunku Abdul Rahman.
Tuanku Abdul Rahman was amused at the antics of this most perturbed Orang Puteh. “My dear Sir, in this country, it is not the King who sacks the Prime Minister but the Prime Minster who sacks the King.” Yes, the Agong put into proper perspective whether the dog wags the tail or the tail wags the dog. And with that Malaya probably avoided a re-colonisation or a war with Britain a la the Falklands.
And so passed on this man who can only be described as a Malay gentleman par excellence. And it was time to choose his successor to the Royal Household of Negeri Sembilan. And the son, Tuanku Munawir, was chosen to succeed the throne. But Munawir ruled for only seven years before he too passed on. And since his son was considered too young to succeed the throne, Umno stepped in and decided that Tuanku Munawir’s brother, Jaafar, should instead become the new Yam Tuan while his son, Mukhriz, was bypassed.
Tuanku Jaafar ruled Negeri Sembilan for four decades. He remained on the throne while the Menteris Besar came and went, names we can no longer even remember. But there was one Menteri Besar the Ruler could not get along with. He would never accept an invitation to any function or event if this particular Menteri Besar were also invited. And if the Menteri Besar walked into the room, then Tuanku would leave on the excuse he had to go powder his nose.
But, try as he may, Tuanku Jaafar could not force the Prime Minister to remove Isa Samad as Menteri Besar. And Tuanku had to endure many years of pain with Isa as his Menteri Besar but could hardly do anything about it. And was this not also so for Sultan Idris of Perak who wanted the Menteri Besar, Ghazali Jawi, dismissed? Sultan Ismail of Terengganu, too, suffered the same indignity when he wanted Nik Hassan out but Umno sided with their Menteri Besar over the Sultan. The Sultan of Pahang shared the same predicament when he went into a rage but could not dislodge Rahim Bakar as Menteri Besar.
Yes, Umno, and only Umno, decides who becomes the Menteri Besar. True, the appointment would have to dovetail with the wishes of the Ruler. But once appointed, the Ruler can do very little except hope that his adversary can be dislodged in the next general election. And no Ruler would commit that cardinal sin of going against Umno’s wishes by removing a Menteri Besar if he wants to continue to sit on the throne.
In the meantime, Tuanku Jaafar was getting old and no longer in the best of health and no one gave him more than a couple of years more to live. To ensure that the throne would not swing back to the Munawir clan, Tuanku Jaafar appointed his son as the Regent, basically sending a message that this was his choice of successor, his son. But when Tuanku Jaafar died, the throne went back to the son of Munawir who had been bypassed and not to his own son who he had installed as the implied successor.
But is this so weird? Did not Selangor too suffer a break in the line of succession when the political masters decided that one should be bypassed in favour of another to ensure that he who sits on the throne remains friendly to the political masters of the day? And Selangor is not the only one. Terengganu, Johor, Kedah, and many other states, also saw interference in deciding the line of succession so that the new Ruler will serve those who walk in the corridors of power in Seri Perdana.
Each state has its own system. And each state is unique. When Idris was the Sultan of Perak, it was not his son who was installed as the Regent. The Raja Muda was older than Sultan Idris that we called him Raja Muda Tua. Then the Raja Muda died before Sultan Idris did. That’s what happens when the Raja Muda is Raja Tua and so much older in age compared to the Sultan.
And that’s when Azlan’s fortunes changed overnight. From a retired Chief Justice he was now the Raja Muda. And, as fate would have it, Idris died not long after that and Azlan ascended the throne. But Azlan did something that none of the others before him did. He appointed his son, Nazrin, as the Raja Muda.
Does this mean Nazrin would now inherit the throne when Azlan dies, as he surely would one day and as all of us will as well? It was not so for Negeri Sembilan. It was also not so for Selangor. And it was not so for some of the other states as well. The Raja Muda who goes on to inherit the throne from the recently deceased Sultan is not an automatic and guaranteed tradition. History has proven that. And whether Nazrin succeeds his father is not for the Sultan to decide but depends on the grace and goodwill of Umno.
Yes, it is not the King who sacks the Prime Minister but the Prime Minister who sacks the King, said our very wise First Agong soon after Merdeka. And that has not changed one bit since. And the Prime Minister has many times in the past decided who should inherit the throne once it becomes vacant. This is how it has always been. This is how it will always be. And any Ruler worth his salt would know that your continuity lies in the hands of he who rules in Seri Perdana.
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