KUALA LUMPUR, March 8 — The Yang di-Pertuan Agong went beyond the call of duty to resolve Malaysia’s political uncertainty last month, Comptroller of the Royal Household Datuk Ahmad Fadil Shamsuddin said when disputing an opinion piece that painted the Malaysian Ruler as “overturning” the result of the general election.
Ahmad Fadil categorised the editorial piece from UK newspaper The Guardian as “appalling” in its inaccurate portrayal of Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri'ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah’s role in the political crisis.
He said this was especially since Malaysia uses the Westminster system inherited from the British, with which he said The Guardian ought to be familiar by virtue of being a British publication.
“The editorial presents a distorted account of the process by which His Majesty the Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia appointed a new prime minister,” he said in a statement today.
Ahmad Fadil stressed that the Agong acted in line with the Federal Constitution over the entire episode, beginning with Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s resignation as the prime minister and culminating in Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s appointment as his successor.
As the Agong was bound by Article 43 (2) (a) of the constitution to appoint a prime minister who, in his judgement, enjoyed majority support from federal lawmakers, Ahmad Fadil said the former took pains to identify such a person.
He pointed out that the Agong took the initiative to personally interview all of the country’s members of parliament and leaders of the various political parties before arriving at his decision.
The comptroller said the Agong dedicated a significant part of his attention to the matter at the time, and only exercised the discretion that was his right under the Federal Constitution following a “rigorous and open process of consultation”.
“Hence, by no means can this process be regarded as a ‘royal coup’ as questionably asserted by The Guardian, which has employed a highly partisan slant in its editorial,” Ahmad Fadil said.
He went on to thank those who previously rebutted The Guardian’s opinion piece prior to his statement today, including Wisma Putra and Malaysians in general.
The offending piece titled “The Guardian view on a royal coup: a king overturns a historic election” was published on March 3, following Muhyiddin’s appointment as the eighth prime minister of Malaysia on the preceding Sunday.
