Royal Immunisation

According to this article in TheStar, “The Regent of Negri Sembilan, Tunku Naquiyuddin Tuanku Ja’afar, has called on royal immunity to be reinstated so the constitutional monarchy can be restored to its full sovereignty. He said that if the Ruler were to exercise his duties in a fair, just and impartial manner to protect the Federal Constitution, his sovereignty needed to be protected too.”

I think that this is a potential political coup, if only our political parties are able to look beyond their noses. If we wish to undo some of the things done in the Mahathir era, this is potentially one of the things that we need to look into. Our former PM had effectively clipped the wings of the monarchy and relegated them to a purely ceremonial role. However, if we wish to undo this, we will need to work through parliament.

And this is the political gem. As neither side of the house has a 2/3 majority, none of them can amend the Constitution on their own. In other words, there needs to be cross-party consensus and cooperation. If I was a PR/BN MP, I would think of using this as a potential platform for reaching across the table. The way I see it, it is a win-win situation for them.

If the other parties decide to tag along and agree to the amendments to the Constitution, the one who pushed for the amendment would score a public relations victory as they have shown the ability to work across party, to undo some of the harms done in the past. If the other parties decide not to agree to the amendments, the one who pushed for it would again score a political victory as they will be seen as defenders of the monarchy. At this time, when the monarchy is being seen as our last bastion of freedom, this can only be a good thing.

Of course, any amendments to our Constitution needs to be studied in depth before being made. There are reasons that the wings of the monarchy were clipped in the past. However, times today have changed and the younger generation of monarchs seem more educated and more professional in discharging their duties. The opposite has happened in our other branches of government, who seem to have become lackadaisical.

Anyway, this is just a random thought.