Pahang regent delays swearing in of MB - why?

NST - Pahang Menteri Besar swearing in ceremony delayed, ruler needs time (extracts):

PEKAN: The Regent of Pahang, Tengku Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah has postponed the Pahang Menteri Besar swearing-in ceremony which was scheduled today as he needed more time.

The ruler said there were no problems (on the appointment) and the postponement was because he needed time to identify all the elected representatives.

“I postponed because I felt that I need time...there is no problem or any other reasons. It will be easier if I can identify all the elected representatives....thats all.

“There are several new faces so I want to get to know them and their potentials,” he told reporters when met at the Istana Abu Bakar here today after the investiture ceremony in conjunction with Pahang Sultan, Sultan Ahmad Shah’s birthday.

Earlier State Barisan Nasional chairman Datuk Seri Adnan Yaakob, who won the Pelangai state seat for the eighth consecutive term was expected to be reinstated as Menteri Besar for the fifth term after Barisan Nasional retained the state in the 14th General Election (GE14).

However, the ceremony which was initially scheduled at 9.30am before the state awards and medals ceremony at the palace was postponed.

It is learnt that the swearing in ceremony will be held by Wednesday.

I am not sure about the discretion of the ruler to delay swearing-in of the new state government on his whims and fancies?

There has to be a valid reason, and I doubt that "... because he needed time to identify all the elected representatives..." is one.

The Regent is not making royalty popular by this.

Already, there has been republican stirrings, especially now that the royal dentist (the man who de-fanged the royal) is back.

M Bakri Musa has written (extracts):

Every year Malaysia spends billions of her precious revenue paid for by the rakyat through GSTs and other taxes to maintain the Agung and his fellow nine brother rulers, as well as the four sultan wannabes – the governors of Sabah, Penang, Melaka, and Sarawak – together with their assorted, expensive multitude of hangers-on. The Agung’s new palace alone cost over a billion, quite apart from the running expenses.

The one crucial and very visible duty of the Agung, sultans, and governors is to ensure the smooth and orderly transition of power, as with following an election or resignation of the Prime Minister, or in case of the states, Chief Minister.

It is difficult to say anything positive on the role of the Agung in the transition between Najib and the newly-elected Prime Minister Mahathir. During the more than 24-hour period following the 14thGeneral Election, Malaysia was, as Mahathir reminded everyone, without a government. That is dangerous when you have thousands of illegal immigrants at her borders and warships of great powers prowling the seas beyond. [...]

I wish Malaysian economists would study the opportunity costs of these sultans. We could send scores of Malays to the Harvards of the world at the price of maintaining one of them. That would be a wiser expenditure of precious public funds.

I wonder whether there is a correlation between the rise of Mahathir and the fall of the royals' popularity and esteem?