In a statement released through the Comptroller of the Royal Household Ahmad Fadil Shamsuddin, the monarch urged politicians to sort out their differences through discussions and the legal process instead of engaging in hostilities.
This came amid Umno’s demand for new terms for it to remain in the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government.
“With regard to the recent development in the country’s political situation, His Royal Highness advised the people, particularly politicians, to self-reflect so that the country will not again be dragged into political uncertainty at a time when we are facing all kinds of problems and a difficult future due to the Covid-19 pandemic,” Ahmad Fadil said…
“His Royal Highness stressed that politicians should not resort to hostility due to differences in opinion but should instead resolve their problems through negotiations and the legal process in accordance with the Federal Constitution,” he said.
The way that politicians resolve inevitable differences of opinion in a democracy, as the Federal Constitution to which this palace spokesman refers makes clear, is through an open vote.
The vote follows public debate.
Backdoor ‘negotiations’ between politicians, who then arrive at a ‘consensus’, is how dictatorships are run and such a form of government is an open invitation to corruption and oppression of the people by the handful of ‘negotiators’ running the country.
So, what the Palace ought to be doing – and surely meant to – is urging the re-call of Parliament so that the matters which are causing all this present uncertainty, namely the growing confusion over who should lead, can be resolved unequivocally and in the proper constitutional manner.
Ducking Parliament in favour of behind the scenes deals that are then ‘announced’ means throwing the Constitution in the river and if Malaysia slides into autocracy both the people and their constitutional monarch will suffer dearly.
Ought not the palace spokesman represent the interests of his master more accurately in his statements?