The Constitutional Monarchy Concept, Roles and Challenges.

Assalamualaikum and a very good afternoon to the master of ceremony, distinguish guests,
honorable judges, respectable teachers and fellow students.
I am a Malaysian, we are all Malaysian. Malaysia is our country. Every country has their
unique government system and constitution. Our constitution which is the supreme law of our
country clearly stated that Malaysia is a federation of states and is practicing democracy with
constitutional monarchy. The Yang Dipertuan Agong is the head of the country where the
function, responsibility and authority are bind by the constitution.
A monarchy is a form of government in which sovereignty is actually or nominally embodied
in one or several individuals reigning until death or abdication. They are called the monarchs.
When the monarch has no legal limitation, it is called an absolute monarchy. When the
monarch's discretion is formally limited by law of the country, it is called constitutional
monarchy. Usually the governance of a constitutional monarchy is done by a group of ministers
lead by a prime minister. They are appointed by the monarch or elected by the people of the
country. As for a democratic country like Malaysia, the people voted for their representative to
form a government. Republic is another form of government in which the government is ruled by
elected leaders as the supreme head of the country with absolute power.
The Federation of Malay States was formed in 1895 which consisted of Perak, Selangor,
Pahang and Negeri Sembilan. In 1948, Penang, Malacca and the other 5 Malays states joined to
form the Federation of Malaya. There are all together 9 Malay states in the federation. The rulers
of these states are known as Sultan while the ruler of Negeri Sembilan is known as Yang
Dipertuan Besar. These states have had their own administration system and structure before
forming the federation. Each of them was an independent state at one time before the
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colonization by the Europeans and British. Penang, Malacca and Singapore were then under the
administration of the British which was known as the Straits Settlements. Federation of Malaya
gained independence from the British on the 31 st August, 1957. In 1963 the federation was
reconstituted with the combination of Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore. Singapore separated from
Malaysia to become an independent republic in 1965.
The federal constitution of Malaysia guarantees the sovereignty of the Malay Sultan in their
respective states. The conference of rulers is a council comprising of the nine rulers of the Malay
states and the governors or Yang Dipertua Negeri of the other four states. This conference of
rulers and its function are clearly stated in article 18 of the Malaysia constitution. According to
the Malaysian National Library, the conference of rulers is the only one such institution in this
world.
The main responsibility of the conference of rulers is the election of the Yang Dipertuan Agong
and Timbalan Yang Dipertuan Agong, which occurs every five years or when the position is
vacant either through death, resignation, or removal from office. The conference of rulers also
plays a role in amending the Constitution of Malaysia including those articles pertaining to the
status of the rulers, the Malays and Bumiputra rights, the National language and culture.
Roles of the monarch and the conference of rulers are clearly stated in the constitution, therefor
no changes to its role unless amendment are made to the constitution. We are all aware that the
governing political coalition does not has the majority of two third in the parliament to amend
the constitution on their own. They need the support from the opposition if the want to amend it.
From the current trend, any amendment seems quite impossible.
That is the historical facts of the formation of Malaysia. The concept of federation and
constitutional monarchy were also briefly explained. We must understand the history and the
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concept of both federalism and constitutional monarchy if we want to discuss further about the
constitutional monarchy of Malaysia.

The most debatable issue is the challenges that the constitutional monarchy is facing in this
present era of borderless world. There are groups of people who are trying to ignore the historical
facts of our country. These groups of people have gone to the extent of telling lies about the
formation Malaysia. These are easily done because the young generation is very ignorant to the
history of our country.
The government realized this situation and is taking steps to overcome the weaknesses.
Ministry of education has imposed History to be the must-pass subject in SPM in order to obtain
the SPM certificate beginning from the year 2013. With this regulation, we hope to see the new
generation has more understanding of our own country. This regulation effected our young
generation who are 20 years old and below. How about the 20 years old and above? They are
now the active citizen of this country. Most of them are the working class of people that
communicate with fellow citizens and also foreigners. They also talk, discuss and debate issues
of their beloved country in conventional platform or in the cyber space. They may spread wrong
or negative perception of the constitutional monarchy unintentionally or intentionally. Strategic
approach to educate this target group should be done in order to avoid wrong perception due to
wrong factual understanding.
Another challenging role face by the constitutional monarchy is to be independent and neutral.
As the highest body in our country, they are the last place for the general citizen to seek
protection from the wrong doings. The role of being the protector to the general citizen must be
done and seen done to the public eyes. The Royal Commission of Inquiry is called by the rulers
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to investigate matters of great importance and usually controversial. These matters can be of
government structure, unfair treatment to the public, events of public concern or economic
issues. To date, our government with the consent of Yang Dipertuan Agung has set-up eleven
royal commissions of inquiries.
The misunderstanding of the public with regards to the power and protection of the rulers is
also a challenging issue. The fact is that the nine Malay rulers are ruling the states which include
all the people living in it. The Yang Dipertuan Agong and the Sultans are not for the Malays
alone and are not limited to taking care of the religion of Islam, the Malay language and Malay
culture only. All citizens of Malaysia from all religion, race and culture are bound to be the
people of the Yang Dipertuan Agong and the Sultan where the states are concerned. This is
proven from the issue being handled by the royal commission of inquiry.
We have to accept the constitutional monarchy system of what Malaysia is. At least for now
and show our loyalty and respect. We know the monarchy system especially the absolute
monarchies are getting less being accepted and practiced in this world. The absolute monarchies
are being replaced by many forms of republics. Many of the republics are facing turmoil, their
leaders fight among them to be in control and the whole country becomes disorder that leads to
anarchy. In order to have a strong country, a leader of a republic is always firm and practice
autocratic leadership. No higher respected authority to protect the general public from the wrong
doing or cruelty of this leader. Do you know that ten most dangerous countries in the world
which are Afghanistan, Somalia, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Venezuela, Pakistan, Brazil, South Africa
and Russia are all republic. Let us check the most peaceful country in the world. Global peace
index 2014 stated ten most peaceful countries are Iceland, Denmark, Austria, New Zealand,
Switzerland, Finland, Canada, Japan, Belgium, and Norway. Six countries of those are
monarchies and four are republics. Many monarchies are well develop and rich countries. Seven
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of the top ten highly develop countries are monarchies. They are Norway, Australia, Netherlands,
New Zealand, Canada, Liechtenstein and Sweden. Only three of them are republics which are the
Unite States, Ireland and Germany.
Being a relatively young and developing country like Malaysia, we, the citizen are responsible
to find facts, cross check the facts and able to articulate our countrys system and its history to
the others. In the other hand, being knowledgeable of our countrys history and government
system can avoid us to being deceived into wrong perception and wild accusation by certain
people with their hidden agenda.
Nevertheless, both systems have their own strength and weakness. People use to say that the
grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. It may be partially true but do we ever
think of the thorns, spines and prickles underneath the green grass over there which are not
known to us over this side? With that question I rest my case. Thank you for the ears given and
may God bless us and our country.