KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 18 — The National Archives of Malaysia have never issued any verification of the status of a man who has been calling himself as “Maharaja Kinta”, its director-general Azemi Abd Aziz has said.

Azemi reportedly said that only the Council of Rulers have the powers to confirm if an individual belongs to the royalty.

“In my entire time as Director-General, there was never anyone who came to receive verification that he is ‘Maharaja Kinta’.

“Usually at the National Archives, the public is allowed to conduct research through documents stored at the archives, but to verify if an individual is of royal descent or not, we don’t have those powers, (we) have to get verification from the Majlis Raja-Raja,” he was quoted telling Utusan Malaysia.

Noting the country’s long history of royalty including the kingdoms of Langkasuka, Malacca and the east coast’s states, Azemi said the palaces of each state keeps their own records of the wide genealogy of the royal families and methods of ascension to the throne.

Yesterday, Utusan Malaysia reported that a 60-year-old man claiming to be a descendant of a Panglima Kinta was installed as “Maharaja Kinta” last November in a ceremony in Selangor and had awarded Datuk Seri and Datuk titles to others.

This man’s family believed they were direct descent from Panglima Kinta based on a document that they claim to have been approved by the National Archives, the paper reported a source as saying.

The self-professed “Maharaja Kinta” was said to have changed his name in his MyKad to include the title “Yang Mulia Datuk Seri Paduka Raja” illegally via an intermediary in the National Registration Department (NRD), with payments allegedly made for the information change.

The newspaper also reported that some of the Datukships sold by this individual can fetch up to RM40,000, along with additional fees of between RM2,000 to RM5,000 for these to be inserted into their official documents.

But Utusan Malaysia reported today that NRD Datuk Sulaiman Keling said his department was not involved in the purported syndicate — where those with fake titles have inserted their Datukships into their identity cards — and declined further comment.

Recently, reports of a self-professed “sultan” of Malacca, a state which no longer has a royal house and an individual professing to be “Bonda Ratu” has surfaced.

These fake royals were said to be selling so-called honorific titles.