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Did The Monarchies Try To Delay Mahathir’s Swearing-In? They Should Be Careful What They Wish For



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May 11 2018
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Mahathir Mohamad has sworn in as Malaysia’s 7th Prime Minister, making him not only the oldest prime minister in the world but also the only prime minister who makes a comeback for the second time. After ruling for 22 years between 1981 and 2003, he went into retirement, only to return actively to politics to get rid of corrupt-tyrant Najib Razak.

 

Pakatan Harapan, the coalition led by him, elegantly swept 122 seats over Najib’s coalition of Barisan Nasional, which only managed 79 seats in the 222 parliamentary seats of the 14th general election. The results were so stunning, at least to Najib Razak, that even the bias Election Commission was helpless against the unexpected “Malaysian Tsunami”.

 

In fact, the Election Commission was so panicked that the only thing they could do was to delay the results announcement and to refuse to sign the Form 14, as we had predicted earlier. The reinforcement of fake or phantom votes to counting centres didn’t materialise because hundreds of people overwhelmingly stopped “unmarked cars” from delivering the suspicious boxes of votes.

Mohd Hashim Abdullah – Malaysia Election Commission Chairman

As the Election Commission (EC) was impatiently waiting for the arrival of the “extra” ballot boxes, some officers decided simply not to proceed with the counting process. For example, at SJK (C) Lee Rubber school, the EC officials were said to have blatantly walked away from the counting process halfway as the unofficial results showed Barisan Nasional (BN) was losing.

 

Video clips of how Pakatan Harapan supporters stopped and thwarted the EC’s evil plan spread like wildfire over WeChat and WhatsApp. Had the cheating not prevented in time by the courageous ordinary citizens, Najib could have had sworn in as the prime minister today. But delaying the results by the disgraceful Malaysia Election Commission didn’t stop there.

 

Even after the EC finally announced the election results, the next institution which appeared to be trying to stop Mr. Mahathir from being sworn in was none other than the monarchy. As the people waiting – impatiently – for the swearing in, there was one delay after another. Initially, Bernama reported 5pm for the ceremony, only to be postponed to 7:30pm and finally 9:30pm.

Malaysia Yang di-Pertuan Agong - Sultan Muhammad V

So, did the Agong (King) try to stop, or at least delay, the swearing in of Mahathir Mohamad as the new Prime Minister of Malaysia? There are at least two indicators which suggested that there was such attempt. First, a video message from Johor’s Sultan Ibrahim, apparently calling for the immediate formation of a new federal government.

 

The sultan of Johor said – “To all my subjects, Bangsa Johor, you must accept the voice of the people to form the government. Without wasting any more time I am also looking forward to working with the new government, for the best of my subjects. Therefore the government must be appointed now, without wasting any more time.”

 

Sultan Ibrahim also expressed hope that Yang di-Pertuan Agong Sultan Muhammad V (the King) would immediately consent to swear in the new prime minister. This can only mean one thing – for whatever reason, the King had refused to proceed with the swearing-in and hadn’t gave his approval to Mahathir being the country’s 7th prime minister.

Mahathir Showed Signatures Of Alliance Party Leaders Endorsing Him

But why did the King try to delay the process? Perhaps the answer can be found during one of Mahathir’s press conferences. And this is the second indicator that the monarchy had tried to delay the ceremony. When asked about the delay, Mahathir responded that there was some confusion in the palace in regards to who has the majority to form the government.

 

It appeared that the king was somehow influenced by Najib’s press conference held at 11am on May 10th. Sore loser Najib, despite having lost the election in the most humiliating way possible, had claimed that no “party” had simple majority to form the federal government, therefore, it would be up to the Agong (King) to decide who would be the prime minister.

 

The king seemed to have had taken Najib’s statement at face value, without realizing that  the monarchy is obliged to appoint a member of parliament – not party whom he believes has the majority support from other MPs. It’s an educated guess that the king was misled into thinking he can actually appoint Najib as the prime minister since BN coalition wins the most seats.

Najib Razak and Yang di-Pertuan Agong - King - Sultan Muhammad V

However, considering that the king has his own team of legal advisers, it doesn’t make sense that he could be as ignorant as not knowing the basic requirement to appoint a new prime minister. In reality, the young 48-year-old king has a very close relationship with Najib Razak. He had personally praised Najib administration despite the shameful 1MDB scandal.

 

But the Sultan of Kelantan, who was proclaimed the Agong on 13 December, 2016 isn’t the only sultan that has very little respect for Mahathir. The Sultan of Selangor is another monarchy who had previously criticised Mahathir for mocking the Bugis descendant as pirates, when in actual fact, Mahathir’s insult was aimed at Najib Razak alone.

 

Naturally, when the swearing-in of Mahathir was repetitively delayed, the Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah of Selangor was accused of attempting to influence the Yang di-Pertuan Agong on the appointment of the new prime minister. The Selangor palace was forced to rubbish the so-called fake news which went viral on the social media.

Mahathir Sworn In As Malaysia 7th Prime Minister

At one of his press conferences, Mahathir said that the Agong “has to sign”, suggesting that the king had indeed refused to consent initially. And the clearest sign that the king was indeed having two minds was when the Sultan Ibrahim of Johor unleashed his video message, urging the Agong to immediately consent to swear in the new prime minister.

 

Unlike the young Sultan of Kelantan, the Sultanate of Johor knew the consequences if the monarchies try to create a crisis with Mahathir. It would be a dumb move to offend the old man in favour of Najib, as the situation did not favour the sultans. With majority of the people, especially the Malays, behind Pakatan Harapan and Mahathir, the monarchies do not stand a chance.

 

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