Opinion | Amid Malaysia’s political chaos, is the country’s king carving out a new place for himself?

Recent months have seen Malaysia’s king take on a prominent role in the country’s chaotic political arena. On several occasions, King Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah called upon members of parliament to support next year’s budget in a bid to prevent further political instability – which was seen by many as contradictory to the monarch’s constitutional role, given how it was perceived as indirectly supporting the beleaguered administration of Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin. Is the king carving out a new place for himself in Malaysian politics?

Sultan Abdullah was chosen as Malaysia’s king – or Yang di-Pertuan Agong – in January last year following the abdication of his controversial predecessor, Sultan Muhammad V of Kelantan, after a little over two years on the throne. The Malaysian king is the head of state for the federation, and a constitutional monarch – as such, he acts mostly in a ceremonial and symbolic capacity. He is elected by and from the Conference of Rulers, made up of the nine hereditary sultans that each oversee a different state. Under Malaysia’s constitution, the king holds mostly nominal powers related to the appointment of the country’s highest officials, including the prime minister and cabinet ministers. These are made based on the recommendation of his own advisers, the Conference of Rulers, and the prime minister.

Since the beginning of his rule, Sultan Abdullah has had to make several key decisions within his prerogative, including the controversial appointment of Muhyiddin in March following an internal coup that prompted the resignation of then premier Mahathir Mohamad, and his later denial of Muhyiddin’s request to implement a state of emergency. The latter appeal, purportedly to handle Malaysia’s Covid-19 outbreak, came after an attempt by opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim to seize a parliamentary majority, which would have unseated Muhyiddin. A state of emergency would have suspended parliament and prevented a motion of no confidence in the prime minister.

While the king did not approve Muhyddin’s request at the time, he definitely helped the weakened prime minister’s budget pass through all potential legislative blockage following his repeated requests that MPs support the bill. In the two weeks before voting on the budget began, Sultan Abdullah made three statements calling on politicians and parliamentarians to support Muhyiddin as a way to prevent further instability and allow the government to better respond to the Covid-19 pandemic. November 26 saw the budget for 2021 pushed through parliament despite veiled threats and back-door negotiations. Sultan Abdullah’s public statements on the budget have created uneasiness, as they are perceived as being too political – and, de facto, outside his prerogative and in contradiction of the role’s legal traditions.

Since former prime minister Mahathir’s resignation in January, and amid a highly unusual political context as well as a global pandemic, the king has had to make an unprecedented number of decisions. He has, in fact, tried to balance the uncertainties raised by the various crises by portraying himself as a guarantor of stability, a sorely needed commodity in Malaysia since the power and ideological vacuum left by the 2018 election. Since the country’s independence from Britain in 1957, the United Malays National Organisation (Umno) had ruled for 61 undefeated years until its May 2018 loss to the Pakatan Harapan coalition led by Mahathir and Anwar. The collapse of that coalition, which saw Muhyiddin installed as premier, led to the formation of the ruling Perikatan Nasional alliance, which is clinging to power by a razor-thin parliamentary majority – and includes Umno and its allied parties.