Saturday, February 07, 2009

Tainted silver ain't no silver bullet

Name me an emperor who was ever struck by a cannonball

- Charles V


Malaysiakini - 'Tuanku, you've disappointed us'.

In numerous posts I had warned of the dangers of over-relying on royalty for our political solutions, or inviting them to step deeper into the political arena, to intervene directly in the nation’s politics.

One of the more recent posts was Bismarck: The king reigns but does not govern, where I wrote:

… Malaysiakini published
Raja Nazrin: Rulers will not act on wrong advice.

Instead of rejoicing that we may be getting some so-called royal ‘check & balance’, au contraire I was filled with dread. I have not been impressed in the least by HRH's speech.

The democracy of Malaysia, warts and all, already has a system of ‘check & balance’, which admittedly didn’t work too well until recently, but then, when it didn’t work well, where were the royalty? […]

Whoever, whichever, whatever, our political reawakening and enjoyment of a more liberal political environment have been attained without any help from royalty! Not an iota! None whatsoever!

They were deafeningly silent when they should have spoken out, but now, like us they too are flexing their own Mahathirised-atrophied muscles in the changed socio-political environment, and reinventing their role in and relevance to society, to enhance their personal status and claw back their stripped down power. […]

Needless to say, I have never been impressed by the royalty's act dunno during our times of need. To be fair, I hadn't even expected any help from them, but what grated on my nerves had been the stupid cries for royalty to help us as if that would happen and automatically solve our political problems .

Some saw the royalty as our political saviour, and went about promoting and egging the rulers to intrude into the political world to ‘rescue’ the people from Darth Vader. Alas, we should have been familiar with the story of Darth Vader, shouldn’t we?

Those royals were even considered as the ‘silver bullets’ to kill the UMNO werewolf.

Raja Petra Kamarudin (RPK) had been one of those ardent promoters of royal political interventionism. I wasn’t all that surprised that RPK had done so, he being a member of a royal family. In his writing, we read frequently of his (coincidental of course) slipping into exaltations of his granddad being Tun Raja (Sir) Uda, and boasting of his cousin the Sultan and his kinship with this and that royal house.

But where were the royalty when we needed them?

Some years ago the Perak Mufti had nearly caused an ugly incident of seditious proportion? Now that was a State religious issue, unlike this year's sacking of an insubordinate Director of JAIP by the Perak MB. So ........?

That Perak Mufti is still around, but MB Nizar has been sacked by HRH. Well ........?

RPK has been one of the principal, if not the principal, promoter of royalty during the last 18 months of political awareness. Further down in this post you'll be directed to read what he has said re the Perak saga.

In
The dangers of royal political activism I wrote:

We shouldn’t rejoice that AAB had his ass whipped nicely by royalty because those royalty must not interfere with the decision making of the PM, the people’s choice of a national leader selected in accordance with our democratic process.

It’s hypocritical to talk about democratic process when we cheer processes that haven't been politically correct just because those processes have gone against a disliked person.

Another lamentable example had been the Perak Sultan's undermining of Perak MB Nizar’s authority by rescinding the latter’s sacking of the State religious director.

One visitor even attempted to intimidate me, a Chinese Malaysian but nonetheless (in his eyes) a mere Chinese, of stepping over the line by raising alarms about (unelected) royalty interfering with (people’s elected) political leadership, as if I wasn’t/am not a Malaysian?

Anyway on to our dear monarchist RPK - so, when RPK’s adoring fans wrote to him to lend his voice to the Pakatan Rakyat’s cause in Perak, what did Mr Promote-Royalty say? Read here for his response.

Anything about HRH’s much criticised action/decisions (criticised by lawyers, not just laypeople like us)?

Anything about Anwar Ibrahim's disgraceful conduct of promoting froggies that led to this sorry state in the Silver State?

Oh no, according to RPK, it’s all DAP's and PAS' faults.

Don’t worry, RPK knows kaytee is one bloke who doesn’t fall into line (or fall over the cliff mindlessly like lemmings).


I don’t hate anyone (not even Anwar Ibrahim) and I don't attack anyone for no reason wakakaka, so RPK knows what I have written here has been done without silly irrational emotion (like those clowns begging this or that Tuanku to intervene on their behalf, aiyah keep dreaming on lah) or animosity. I just write what I see and analyse, and he knows these are not all that wrong.

To end this post, some lessons from kaytee:

Lesson 1 – royalty has a constitutional role but their members aren’t angels or saviours of the rakyat

Lesson 2 - don’t ever ever allow constitutional monarchy more than the role the Constitution has limited them to

Lesson 3 – respect royalty as per the Constitution but don’t forget history, past and recent, about the behaviour, action and conduct of royalty

Lesson 4 – be more appreciative of what Dr Mahathir (alone of all PMs) had done to clip some of the royalty wings

Lesson 5 – in a democracy like Malaysia, there are only 2 things that may be considered as possessing ‘supremacy’:

(a) The supremacy of the Malaysian Constitution

(b) The supremacy of the people’s voice

Related:
(1) Rulers no 'Silver Bullet'
(2) Dr Wan Azizah, rethink your promise of legal immunity for royalty

14 comments:

  1. Ask RPK who was the asshole who sold the Malays to the British with the Pangkor Treaty. We know the person was certainly not a Chinese, nor was that person an Ulama. He was the person who later became the Sultan of Perak. Now a relative of his has sold his state to UMNO. The new MB is a developer with close ties to Gamuda and the Sultan's wife has a stake in Gamuda. Doesn't take a genius here.
    Believe me KT DAP and PAS are Malaysia's only hope so far. Please give PAS a break when it comes to PAS's desire for an Islamic state and Hudud laws. Go to the ground and check out for yourself how well the Chinese have done under PAS rule in Kelantan. Almost all the Chinese I have met from Kelantan are full of praise for the integrity of the PAS government. Look at Hadi HjAwang and the house he lives in today. As the MB of Terengganu for one term he did not steal anything. One can only imagine how filthy rich an UMNO man would have become by being a MB.

    However, RPK puts all the blame on the DAP and PAS. The sellout Sultan and the Katak king is left blame free. The argument RPK makes is that Islam and socialism cannot ever come together due their diametrically opposed ideology. Thus. the PKR is the only hope. No surprise here when we sere how royalties are scared shitless of the socialists and Islamists. KT, as a man of letters I am sure you are aware of many instances around the world in which the two ideologies have come together to form governments. Would Turkey today be an example of such a government?

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  2. Tuan, the main reason Pakatan Rakyat lost Perak due to two Keadilan and one DAP ADUNs jumped over to BN.

    Many things are being said about the good Sultan but i think he is the least to be faulted. If those three maintain the majority in Pakatan, there is nothing anyone can do, not even the Sultan. I pity the Sultan for having to take the blame created by the politicians.

    Se latest Anwar Ibrahim blog posting titled: "Constitutional crisis caused by the Sultan" refering to Sultan Perak. How convenient of him to blame the good Sultan when its his Keadilan member that betrayed the Perak Government. Anwar = Ular

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  3. "Name me an emperor who was ever struck by a cannonball"

    Gustavus Adolphus - King of Sweden - Battle of Lutzen 1631. Killed leading a cavalry charge.

    Roman Emperor Valens - Battle of Adrianople - 378 Killed together with most of the Roman Army

    Richard The Lion Heart England - Killed in Action 1199.

    Just a bit of historical nuggets....

    Point to Note : There are no modern examples...Zero

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  4. B*N cant have a vote of no confidence. u*mno elections are next month. if perak falls more decisively what is n*ajib going to do? will pak lah come stay on?

    they have to have a transfer of power without elections. this way naj*ib marches into PWTC in triumph. Altho its begining to look like a hollow victory. MB should not have gone to the sul*tan. he should have waited for a no confidence motion. B*N doesnt want one either.

    why did the sul*tan go along. did he think everyone was just going to lie down? I dont think he has any illusions. yet he was willing to do down this route. whatever goodwill he and his son had is slowly dissipating. What would be worth this sorry state of affairs.Think. Answer? Coming soon.

    ja*z

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  6. Nah... RPK was more like putting the blame on DAP... he kind of made PAS the victim of DAP lol... No mention about the Sultans, no mention about PKR & Anwar...

    and by the way... the billion dollar question is... why that she-traitor was the one who catches most attention huh?~~

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  11. I would appreciate more intellectual and less emotional comments, and certainly no unsubstantiated accusations of biz interests, regardless of the party being accused.

    Thanks

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  12. KT
    no unsubstantiated accusations of biz interests, regardless of the party being accused.

    iS THIS COMMENT BY VINNAN ALSO UNSUBSTANTIATED ??
    The new MB is a developer with close ties to Gamuda and the Sultan's wife has a stake in Gamuda. Doesn't take a genius here.

    OH THE SULTAN'S WIFE ??HAVING A STAKE IN GAMUDA ? ALSO FACTUALLY WRONG .

    Recommend to be deleted

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  13. not Sultanah lah, but daughter, T Eleena - see
    http://www.forbes.com/lists/2008/84/biz_malaysiarichest08_Eleena-Azlan-Shah_MDRG.html

    stating a member fo teh Perak family has shares in Gamuda is indisputable but I don't want to hear any libellous extrapolation from there

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  14. Ktemoc,
    Why so much deletion? GOT SCARED SHIT OF THOSE ROYALS!
    Another coward born today.You have no trouble banging away at Anuar but when it concerns the Royals you chicken out.Man! stop being all mouth.

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