Government Steps Up Efforts to Curb Royal Privileges : Malaysia Taking On Sultans  
International Herald Tribune
April 3, 1992
Michael Richardson

When Sultan Ismail Petra, hereditary ruler of the Malaysian state of Kelantan, roared away from a customs holding area recently in a new Italian-made sports car after refusing to pay more than $800,000 in import taxes, he touched a sensitive nerve in Malaysia.

Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad accused him of unethical behavior and said he had "flouted the law" by taking the Lamborghini Diablo without paying duty. Newspapers publicized the case.

Under the country's system of parliamentary democracy and constitutional monarchy, sultans preside over 9 of the 13 states as symbolic protectors of indigenous Malays, their culture and the Islamic religion.

As the Malaysian cabinet met in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday to discuss the issue, analysts said the Diablo affair seemed certain to increase efforts by the federal government and the main Malay political party to try to curtail the authority of the traditional rulers.

The sultans exercised absolute power over their subjects before Malaysia became a British colony. The country's first prime minister after independence in 1957 was a Malay prince.

The role of the sultans was so highly valued by Malays, who constitute about half the population of 18 million, that amendments to the Sedition Act passed by the legislature in 1971 made it an offense to question the position or prerogatives of traditional rulers in public.

But in the last few years, as political affiliations have changed and economic growth has opened up extensive new business opportunities in Malaysia, there has been growing and increasingly open criticism of some of the royal families from Malay businessmen and Malay-dominated elected governments in Kuala Lumpur and the states.

The Diablo affair "raises the issue of how the position of the Malay rulers is to be modified in the context of rapid changes in Malaysian society and the emergence of a Malay middle-class," said Murugesu Pathmanathan, associate professor in the faculty of economics and administration at the University of Malaya.

Malay politicians complain of growing interference from the traditional rulers in politics and business.

At a general assembly in November of the main Malay political party, the United Malays National Organization, speakers said that royal families were competing with commoners in everything from import permits for cars to licenses for gas stations and logging concessions.

Mr. Mahathir is president of the organization.

Delegates to the assembly also asserted that members of royal families were using their influence to secure lucrative contracts and licenses for Chinese business associates. Chinese and Indians are the main minority races in Malaysia.

Anwar Ibrahim, the finance minister and senior vice president of the United Malays National Organization, said recently that in 1972 a conference of rulers decided that each sultan should be allowed to own seven luxury cars exempt from import duty.

But he said that Sultan Ismail had already been allowed nine duty-free imports and must pay taxes on the Lamborghini or hand it back to customs.

The import tariff on luxury items is more than 300 percent. The sultan is said to owe 2.1 million ringgit ($814,000).

Mr. Anwar added that the sultan already possessed 21 luxury imported cars, excluding 10 that had been underdeclared and later sold for a substantial profit at the prevailing market price in Malaysia.

Sultan Ismail has denied wrongdoing, saying that the 1972 decision was not a binding rule and that as head of Islam in his state he was bound by Muslim law, not secular law.

Analysts said his stand appeared to have gained widespread support in Kelantan, which is ruled by a government led by the Pan-Islamic party, the main political rival of the united Malays organization.

Karpal Singh, deputy chairman of the opposition Democratic Action Party, said Sultan Ismail was being "hounded for the obvious reason that he has stood up against the federal government."

Officials of the united Malays organization have accused the sultan of having backed their opponents when the united Malays swept to power in Kelantan in a 1990 election, citing his behavior as an example of improper political interference.

It is not clear whether the federal government will use its more than two-thirds majority in Parliament to amend the constitution to remove the remaining political powers of the sultans and the country's king, whom they elect from among themselves every five years.

The constitution states that no law directly affecting the privileges, position, honors or dignity of the sultans shall be passed without the consent of a conference of rulers.

The Mahathir government's last attempt to curb the authority of the rulers created a constitutional crisis that was only resolved by a compromise in 1984.

Under the compromise, the king was left with the right to delay, but no longer veto, federal legislation to which he objected. But the sultans were allowed to continue to approve or block state bills.

At a meeting in February between the Malay traditional rulers and a delegation of senior leaders from the united Malays organization, Mr. Anwar said there was agreement on the need for a written code of ethics and rules for the sultans.

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