The ball is now at the Agong’s feet
What many may not realise is, once the Agong has been handed the mandate to choose the new prime minister, Malaysians can no longer talk about the people’s mandate or mandat rakyat. The rakyat have surrendered this mandate to the Agong. The Agong has been given the sole authority to settle Malaysia’s political turmoil and choose a prime minister from amongst the 220 MPs on behalf of 33 million Malaysians.
NO HOLDS BARRED
Raja Petra Kamarudin
This is precisely what they had been screaming for since last year: for Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin to resign and for the task of choosing the successor or PM9 to be handed over to Seri Paduka Baginda Yang di-Pertuan Agong.
Personally, this works for me.
Since the 1990s, at the height of the Constitutional Crisis, I have been saying that without the Raja-Raja Melayu, Malaysia would be in chaos. With more than 30 political parties and 222 members of parliament, all imagining themselves as prime ministers-in-waiting, you will never see peace in Malaysia’s political arena.
Some allege I am only saying this because I am a royalist and a member of the royal family. That is not the only reason I believe in the monarchy (in this case the constitutional monarchy) as opposed to a republic. I am looking at the English Civil War and how they executed King Charles I and turned England into a republic, and the turmoil that followed thereafter, to come to my conclusion.
They finally had to invite King Charles II to return to England to take back the throne. England was more chaotic as a republic compared to as a monarchy. And Malaysia, if left just to the politicians, would be in a similar royal mess.
Anyway, what everyone wanted has happened. Muhyiddin has resigned and now the unpleasant job of settling Malaysia’s political deadlock has been handed to His Majesty the Agong to solve. And this is what His Majesty is currently doing; you can say it is work-in-progress.
What many may not realise is, once the Agong has been handed the mandate to choose the new prime minister, Malaysians can no longer talk about the people’s mandate or mandat rakyat. The rakyat have surrendered this mandate to the Agong. The Agong has been given the sole authority to settle Malaysia’s political turmoil and choose a prime minister from amongst the 220 MPs on behalf of 33 million Malaysians.
It is like when two parties have a dispute and they have agreed to settle the dispute through an arbitrator and have agreed to accept the decision of the arbitrator. One party is going to win and the other is going to lose. And the losing party must accept this defeat, as had been agreed under the terms of the arbitration.
In this case, there are two warring factions, and His Majesty has been asked to arbitrate the dispute. And this is what the Agong is currently doing. But there are going to be winners and losers. And the losers will have no choice but to accept the defeat honourably.
In fact, the same was done in February 2020 but the losers were not happy. That is why we have been seeing chaos for more than a year. This time, however, once the Agong has decided who is going to be PM9, everyone must accept that decision and forever hold their peace and keep their mouth shut. No more moaning, grumbling, and bitching.
So let us just wait and see what the Agong decides. Of course, the Agong has a certain procedure to follow to come to the decision on who of the 220 MPs will be appointed PM9. There are rules, no doubt.
But one thing we can be certain of, not everyone is going to be happy with the Agong’s decision. However, they have no choice but to keep their mouth shut and accept that decision. Then, in GE15, they can demonstrate their unhappiness through the ballot box.
