Sultans, Politics and MBs – Another Giant Kayu Balak in UMNO’s Eye

When the DAP-PAS-PKR coalition took Perak, they submitted their candidates for Menteri Besar nomination to the Regent of Perak.

The Regent chose the PAS candidate Mohamad Nizar Jamaludin, as is the Regent’s right, and DAP’s mentor Lim Kit Siang got riled up about it on his blog, threatening that DAP’s assemblymen would boycott the swearing in ceremony.

LKS apologized later, but UMNO’s bigshots were already all over the case with mockery and criticism of the ‘lack of respect for royalty’.

For one, keris-master Hishamuddin blasted out:

“DAP secara terang tidak bertanggungjawab dan tidak menghormati kedudukan kesultanan Melayu. Niat memulaukan istiadat pelantikan juga menunjukkan mereka hanya gilakan kuasa sehingga sanggup membelakangkan kesetiaan kepada raja dan negara.”

Which is translated to English as: “DAP clearly is irresponsible and disrespects the position of the Malay Sultanate. The intention of overturning the tradition of nomination also shows that they are just power-crazed to the point of discarding loyalty to king and country.”

But, not long after that in Barisan Nasional held Perlis, the Sultan chose Md Isa Sabu over Abdullah Badawi’s pick of Shahidan Kassim… Which was not received well by Shahidan and his UMNO gang.

But as it is the Sultan’s right to pick his state’s MB, it was a rock-and-hard-place choice fro Badawi – between going against the Malay ruler or losing face as the kilted nation’s Prime Minister.

Long and embarassing story short, Badawi lost his face and Sultan got his pick.

And now, the Terengganu Regency Advisory Council chose Datuk Ahmad Said over Badawi’s pick of Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh.

Badawi and UMNO responded by protesting that picking anyone but Idris is ‘unconstitutional’. They threatened to boycott the swearing in ceremony. They threatened Ahmad to obey UMNO’s commands or risk disciplinary action… And Ahmad got sacked anyway.

However, the Sultan of Terengganu has the last laugh as of 27 March 2008 – he stripped Idris and two cronies of their Datukships! (hat tip: hutchrun)

And so, look back at what Hishamuddin said again, only this time apply it to UMNO’s antics:

“UMNO clearly is irresponsible and disrespects the position of the Malay Sultanate. The intention of overturning the tradition of nomination also shows that they are just power-crazed to the point of discarding loyalty to king and country.”

Just another in the looooooooooooong line of UMNO-pocrisy that has been regularly demonstrated these past few months.

And thusly it seems that every time UMNO’s boys open their big, hate-spewing mouths, something happens to show them up to be exactly the thing that they were protesting.

Strangely, the UMNOputras don’t seem to have the memory span to remember their past proclamations and avoid falling into their own traps. Like, totally lame, man.

Tags: Datuk Ahmad Said, Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh, Md Isa Sabu, Nizar Jamaludin, Perak MB, Perlis MB, Shahidan Kassim, Terenggany MB, UMNO