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THIS really is not complicated.
Negeri Sembilan has a Constitution. It is not a menu from which politicians may select the provisions they find convenient and ignore the ones they do not.
The State Secretary, State Legal Adviser and State Financial Officer occupy constitutionally recognised positions within the state administration.
They are not political employees whom a Menteri Besar may simply suspend or dismiss because they refuse to carry out an instruction they believe to be unlawful. He and the exco have no such power.
The proper constitutional and administrative channels exist for a reason.
And that brings us to the much bigger question.
Does Negeri Sembilan presently have a functioning, constitutionally legitimate State Executive Council at all?
The Yang di-Pertuan Besar has revoked the appointments of the Exco members, citing Article XXXVIII(5) of the State Constitution and their breach of the oath they swore before him.
That oath was not ceremonial theatre.
They swore allegiance. They swore to protect and preserve the sovereignty of the State Constitution.
They acknowledged the constitutional institutions of Negeri Sembilan.
Then came September 15.
The Attorney-General’s Chambers has already stated that the Exco had no jurisdiction, authority or power under the State Constitution to make its announcement concerning the Ruler, and that attempts to implement the purported proclamation would be invalid and unconstitutional.
Yet we now have the extraordinary spectacle of people whose Exco appointments have been revoked turning up and apparently carrying on as though nothing has happened.
And a Menteri Besar continuing to issue statements insisting that everything is business as usual.
It isn’t.
Whatever legal arguments the MB now wishes to advance, there is plainly a constitutional crisis. Pretending otherwise does not resolve it.
Leadership is also knowing when your position has become untenable.
In my view, the Menteri Besar should resign. Not as an admission of defeat, but as an act of dignity and respect for the institutions he was entrusted to serve.
And perhaps the cleanest answer now lies not with another press conference, another proclamation or another political manoeuvre.
Return the mandate to the people.
Yes, an election costs money.
But democracy costs money. Constitutional chaos costs considerably more.
Let the people of Negeri Sembilan decide, now fully informed by what they have witnessed.
The Constitution belongs neither to the Palace nor to the politicians alone.
It ultimately protects the people.
And when political authority becomes this confused and contested, there is something wonderfully uncomplicated about returning to the source of democratic authority itself.
The people. – September 23, 2026
Datuk Dr Vinod Sekhar is the publisher of The Vibes and Chairman of the Petra Group
