WORDS like ‘derhaka’ is not fit for constitutional monarchy and is nowhere found in our Constitution, said Wong Chin Huat, a professor and political scientist at the Jeffrey Sachs Center on Sustainable Development at Sunway University in Malaysia.
He refers to yesterday’s fiasco, which saw shouts of ‘derhaka’ (treason) echoing in the Dewan Rakyat and on social media.
This comes after Istana Negara’s statement expressing the Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah’s disappointment that the Emergency Ordinances were revoked without His Majesty’s consent.
“As much as you are angered by how the Government treats the Parliament with contempt with regards to the false claim of Emergency Ordinance revocation, I strongly urge you not to use expressions like ‘derhaka’, ‘treason to the King’ or ‘defiance’,” Wong wrote on a Facebook post yesterday.
The political scientist explained that Malaysia is a constitutional monarchy where the King is a figurehead, and that we must defend the royal institutions within the constitutional confine, not by overstepping it.
“If you want to slam this Government or any of its ministers or officials, you have plenty of other expressions like ‘bypassing the Palace’, ‘lying to the Parliament (which contains the King)’ or ‘acting unconstitutionally’,” he said.
Wong further expressed his alarm that some activists who claim that ministers of the current Government should be put under arrest by the police simply because they have defied the King who is the supreme commander of security forces.
“Such is the language of coup. Any political leaders who encourage their followers to use the language of coup, no matter how unfit this Government is, are themselves more unfit to lead the country.
“Coups beget coups. We must say no to desperados in any side of the political divide,” he concluded. – July 30, 2021
