Council of Rulers are playing the role of check and balance
PEKAN: Pahang Regent Tengku Hassanal Ibrahim Alam Shah Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah decreed that the royal institution such as the Council of Rulers can function as a check and balance in the current open society.
He said it is a requirement based on the current needs and the need to retain and inculcate tradition.
Elaborating on that point, he gave the example of the International Convention for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) and the Rome Statute that is viewed as an element that can threaten national sovereignty.
“This is where there is a need for flexibility in every effort to implement a policy and decision on the next course of action,” he said.
“While the nation’s constitution and state constitution is technically under the umbrage of the parliament, at the national level there is the Council of Rulers which is empowered to elect and fire the Agong.
“At the national level, it is the Council of Rulers that is playing the role of check and balance,” he added.
He said this while officiating the royal colloquium entitled Sovereign King by the Pahang Museum Incorporated in Muzium Abu Bakar.
The two day colloquium was organised to achieved the following three goals:
- to ensure that the society understands the history and development of the royal institution especially in Pahang
- to study the polity and customs of the Malay rulers and
- inculcate awareness to the new generation on the importance of defending the royal institution
