No Datukship for Politicians

I know I have not been blogging for almost a month. I was taking a year-end break, so that come 1 Jan 2009 I would 'relaunch' my blog with new vigour as part of my New Year's Resolutions.

However, the frontpage headline story of today's Star, Malaysia's 'people's paper', caught my attention and I can't help but write something about it and hence this post.

The banner headline says "Datuk freeze" while the sub-heading is "Sultan: No awards for politicians this year". The 'Sultan' referred to is His Royal Highness the Sultan of Selangor, Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah (pic). For the benefit of my non-Malaysian readers, Selangor is one of the 13 States which make up Malaysia. Out of these States, only 9 have Rulers including Sultans (who take turn every 5 years to become the Yang Di-Pertuan Agong or King) while 4 are governed by the Yang Di-Pertua Negeri (Governor).

As the heading suggests, the Sultan in an unprecedented move is not going to award any Datukship (roughly equivalent to Sir in Britain) to any politician on his birthday next on Dec 11. The conferment of State awards (as opposed to Federal titles in the case of the King's birthday) has been a tradition by the Rulers and Governors and the King on their official birthdays. Although the awards are also given to non-politicians including foreigners (honourary titles), nonetheless politicians make up a large portion of the annual lists.

What also attracted my attention in today's Star was the fact that the frontpage story was written by the leading paper's editor Wong Chun Wai himself. Wong, himself a Datuk although he was too humble to add it to his name, was granted an exclusive interview by the Sultan. This speaks volume for the credibility of the story, the writer and the paper. Wong, to me at least, is one of Malaysia's most senior, if not the top, journalists and is influential. His weekly column, On The Beat, and his blog, attract huge following.

Now back to the story. Appearing alongside the frontpage story and below the headline is a quote together with the Sultan's picture. It goes like this: "There is no such thing as a quota for the MB or myself. We agree it should not be freely given to maintain its prestige."

Now let us relate this statement of the Sultan to my beloved home State, Sabah. It is an open secret that out of the 20-30 or so Datukship awarded annually, at least a few would fall under the Governor's 'quota' - meaning decided by the Governor himself while the rest would be the choice of the State Government or to be exact the Chief Minister. Normally, people who get their Datukship through the Governor direct would have slimmer chances if their 'applications' were to go through the Chief Minister. These 'privileged few' would normally not be politicians or veterans from the NGOs or industry captains who would qualify under the State Government's list. In other words, it is up to the Governor to give his 'quota' of the few Datukships each year to practically anybody, except criminals may be, but including businessmen from a neighbouring State who failed to become Datuks in their own State. It is, after all, his birthday.

But only a Sultan can make the kind of statement or decision as what the Selangor Sultan did. This is because the MB (Chief Minister) will have to listen to him for he is the Ruler of the State FOR LIFE unless he abdicates. He can sack the MB anytime if he wants to even if the MB's party controls the House (State Assembly). But not so in the case of a Governor as in the case of Sabah. Although officially the Governor is appointed by the King after consultation with the Prime Minister, the ruling party in the State through the Chief Minister technically makes the choice. The Sabah Governor is appointed for a four-year term and must not serve more than two terms. So, the Governor, though being No 1 in his State protocol-wise, normally listens to the Chief Minister unless he is nearing the end of his 2nd term or does not intent to serve more than one term. So, there is indeed a CM's quota and a Governor's quota in Sabah and most probably in the three other States with Governors as well.

Another quote from the Selangor Sultan which caught my attention and which I cannot agree more with is: "There will be no politicians - either from the past or present State government.

"The present state government is barely right months old. Even a pregnancy is nine months.

"I am sure there are deserving cases in the present state government but let us wait first. Let them focus on their work, not awards or rewards. Titles need not come with positions," he said.

The present Selangor state government of Pakatan Rakyat or People's Alliance comprising Keadilan, PAS and DAP defeated the UMNO-led BN which had ruled the state or for that matter Malaysia for half-a-century since the birth of the nation. The Menteri Besar or Chief Minister is from Keadilan or Justice Party led by Malaysian Opposition ledaer and former Deputy Premier Anwar Ibrahim.