Constitutional Monarchy Malaysia Installs New King

[SOURCE: The Star]

Malaysia, a constitutional monarchy, formally installed the Sultan of Terengganu, Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin as its 13th Yang di-Pertuan Agong today. His Majesty, who was elected by the Council of Rulers to replace the former Yang di-Pertuan Agong Tuanku Syed Sirajuddin, will hold this largely ceremonial role for the next five years.

The list of Yang di-Pertuan Agong:

1. Tuanku Abdul Rahman of Negeri Sembilan (1957-1960)
2. Sultan Hisamuddin Alam Shah of Selangor (1960)
3. Tuanku Syed Putra of Perlis (1960-1965)
4. Sultan Ismail Nasiruddin Shah of Terengganu (1965-1970)
5. Tuanku Alhaj Abdul Halim Mu'adzam Shah of Kedah (1970-1975)
6. Sultan Yahya Petra of Kelantan (1975-1979)
7. Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah Al-Mustain Billah of Pahang (1979-1984)
8. Sultan Iskandar Al-Haj of Johor (1984-1989)
9. Sultan Azlan Muhibbuddin Shah of Perak (1989-1994)
10. Tuanku Jaafar of Negeri Sembilan (1994-1999)
11. Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah of Selangor (1999-2001)
12. Tuanku Syed Sirajuddin of Perlis (2001-2006)
13. Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin of Terengganu (2006-)

It will be refreshing to have a young King who hopefully will bring some life and relevance to the institution. In fact, His Majesty has already decided to make some changes at the palace. Who I would love to be King however is Raja Nazrin Shah.

Raja Nazrin has an impressive academic and intellectual background with bachelor's degrees with honours in various fields – philosophy, politics and economics from Oxford University. His Royal Highness also holds a Masters in Public Administration from the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard and Ph.D in Political Economy and Government from Harvard University.

Now, that is someone with the right know-how to do something good for Malaysia. Unfortunately, if the Council of Rulers follows the succession line based on the previous rotation, Raja Nazrin would only be King a good 25 years from now. But of course, His Royal Highness would need to succeed his father as Sultan of Perak first, another man I have great respect for and in about 20 years time, Sultan Azlan Shah would already hit 100 if he's still alive, enough time for him to get acquainted with ruling the state of Perak before taking over as the Supreme Leader of Malaysia. Hopefully, the damage is not too severe by the time he takes over as Agong for him to work his magic.

Keywords: Malaysia constitutional monarchy Sultan Terenggany Tuanku Mizan Yang di-Pertuan Agong Council of Rulers Tuanku Syed Sirajuddin Raja Nazrin Shah Perak King Sultan Azlan Shah Agong