Needless fuss over Johor enactment
In the end, all that hue and cry was really over nothing
Free Malaysia Today
After a weekend of much ado, the Johor Housing and Real Property Board Bill 2014 finally became law on Monday. Considering there are only 18 opposition members in the 56-member Johor legislative assembly, this comes as no surprise because it would have been suicide for any Barisan Nasional member to oppose it.
Nevertheless, because of the preceding hue and cry—even, most surprisingly, from Umno-controlled Utusan Malaysia—ten amendments were made to the original bill. The most crucial of these is the provision that the Sultan is to act on the advice of the Menteri Besar.
And with that, all is well and fine and we can all go home and live happily ever after.
But hold on. Has not the Constitution already provided that the Sultan shall take the advice of the Menteri Besar? So what is new then? In the first place, the enactment cannot violate the Constitution; the Sultan is supposed to take the advice of the Menteri Besar even if the bill does not say so.
And the bill cannot stipulate that the Sultan need not take the advice of the Menteri Besar because any law that violates the Constitution is illegal. In fact, the Federal Constitution says that no law may be passed after Merdeka if it goes against the Constitution.
This means the bill itself and that particular amendment are both non-events. The Sultan shall at all times take the advice of the Menteri Besar, bill or no bill.
