Anwar is a federal prime minister.
The Yang Di Pertuan Besar of Negeri Sembilan is a state ruler.
A federal prime minister has no business deciding who a state ruler of Negeri Sembilan is.
But deciding on who the ruler of Negeri Sembilan is, is exactly what Anwar might be doing .
For context, last week, the chieftains or Undangs of Negeri Sembilan have assembled to topple the Yang Di Pertuan Besar of Negeri Sembilan and install a new Yang Di Pertuan Besar.
In response to the Undangs move, Anwar has put his scale on the thumb and sided with the Yamtuan Besar against the Undangs.
"As things stand, we continue to recognise Tuanku Muhriz as the Yang di-Pertuan Besar and urge that any differing views be pursued through lawful constitutional processes without causing unnecessary public anxiety,” Anwar told reporters after the event.
A lot of people, you and me as well as Anwar, might have different opinions as to whether the Undangs should or should not topple the Yang Di Pertuan Besar.
We might also bewildered as to how a dispute between the Undangs and the Yamtuan Besar is to be resolved.
The dispute might also be very inconvenient for many of us.
We also might, as Anwar believes, that "any move to remove or depose a state ruler would have far-reaching implications for the country and its stability."
But despite all that, none of us, even the prime minister of the country, can interfere or decide who the ruler of Negeri Sembilan should be.
We can't, because if outsiders - even if it is the Prime Minister of the country itself - can decide who the Yang Di Pertuan Besar of Negeri Sembilan should be, then for all intent and purpose, Negeri Sembilan is no longer a sovereign state.
Instead of calling Negeri Sembilan as Negeri Sembilan Darul Khusus, we might as well call it Wilayah Persekutuan Negeri Sembilan, and make it the fourth territory of the federal government - after KL, Putrajaya and Labuan.
To the least, before Anwar decides on who gets to be the Yamtuan Besar of Negeri Sembilan, the federal government should declare a state of emergency in Negeri Sembilan, to allow for federal intervention in its affairs.
That way, even if Negeri Sembilan will not be a sovereign state during the period of emergency, it can return to a sovereign state after the emergency period is over.
But if the prime minister decided who the Yang Di Pertuan Besar should be even without declaring an emergency, then for all intent and purpose, the sovereignty of Negeri Sembilan will be gone for good.
But if no one can interfere in their dispute, but the Undangs and the Yamtuan Besar themselves can't settle their dispute, what is the solution to this problem you ask ?
Well, many people will probably have many different ideas as to what the solution maybe.
I personally believe that a trial by contest is the only meaningful solution to this despite.
Some constitutional experts, like I mentioned above, also believe that declaring a state emergency in Negeri Sembilan is the way to solve this problem.
But although we might disagree on what the solution should be , what I am sure all of us can agree on is what the solution cannot be - and what the solution cannot be, is for outsiders, even if it be the Prime Minister, to decide on who should or should not be the Yamtuan Besar of Negeri Sembilan.
TheRealNehruism (nehru.sathiamoorthy@gmail.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
The User Content (as defined on Newswav Terms of Use) above including the views expressed and media (pictures, videos, citations etc) were submitted & posted by the author. Newswav is solely an aggregation platform that hosts the User Content. If you have any questions about the content, copyright or other issues of the work, please contact creator@newswav.com.
