More than twice a king
WRITING on the occasion of the Silver Jubilee of the Sultan of Kedah in July 1983, former Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman referred to the ancient history of the sultanate, including the legend of Marong Mahawangsa and his apparently Mongul ancestry, its close association with the people, the kingdom’s tribulations at being fought over by the Thais and the British, and the monarchy’s constitutional position in Malaysia. It is in this article that Tunku wrote of the throne “as a guarantee of our freedom. Freedom to worship, freedom to socialise and freedom to practice our political rights”. If the head of state performs his constitutional duty, then the other institutions of state should perform theirs.
Perhaps most poignantly for the Tunku, however, was the fact that “at the Sultan’s request, I had the privilege to serve for one day as the Prime Minister under him”. The Sultan was of course his nephew Sultan Abdul Halim Mu’adzam Shah, who did indeed “reign for many, many more years” as the uncle had hoped – at 59 years, the second-longest in the history of Kedah.
Although most Malaysians will know of the late Sultan’s long reign and his record of being the only Ruler to serve as Yang di- Pertuan Agong twice – apart from also being the only Ruler whose reign encompassed the premiership of all Malaysia’s Prime Ministers, and being the second longest- reigning and second oldest monarch in the world ( after Elizabeth II) – the late Sultan witnessed all the most significant events of our 20th century history.
Recently, I had a photograph taken on the morning of Aug 5, 1957 reprinted for display as part of the ‘Jalan Merdeka’ exhibition at Carcosa and Seri Negara, and I remarked to visitors that only one person in it was still alive. Standing behind his father Sultan Badlishah, we see the 30-year- old Tunku Abdul Halim among the group that was at King’s House where the Federation of Malaya Agreement 1957 was being signed.
By the date of this photo, he would have grown up in Kedah as an Unfederated Malay State, seen the horrors of World War II, and witnessed how his state transitioned after the war through the Malayan Union (which his father so valiantly opposed) to the Federation of Malaya. And he would have already acquired a strong understanding of its constitutional and geopolitical significance, having been trained in social science and public administration at Wadham College at the University of Oxford.
Three weeks after this photo, the Federation of Malaya achieved Merdeka. Within a year, he had ascended the throne as Sultan of Kedah, and he would go on to view the Emergency, the formation of Malaysia, Confrontation as well as periods of economic growth punctuated by episodes of political and constitutional turmoil. Although we might never know his opinions on some of these developments, throughout his entire reign, his dedication to his people, which he pledged at his installation remained steadfast and unwavering.
And on the most current form of communication, social media, we see how this most old-fashioned of values has been appreciated. In her ‘Ode to Papa’, Tunku Puteri Intan Safinaz wrote, “‘ I have done my best’, always something he said, To lead not by words but by things that he did, Three hundred times a year he’d commit, For the people, the children there was never a quit.” In a touching tribute to her grandfather, Raja Sarina recalled, “In between functions you would be in the hospital ward … I would watch you on TV looking normal … But as soon as the event was over, you would return to the hospital ward with tubes connected to your body. Even on your sickest day, you would be ON TIME.”
Such tributes have come not just from family members, but from the public as well: people who remember him diligently attending school awards days, constitutional, military and ceremonial events, as well as those who saw his more personal side such as when he was caring for his animals. One oft- quoted example of his insistence on being punctual was when he walked to a football stadium when his car was stuck in traffic.
For some sceptical Malaysians, the idea of “dedication to duty” might sound nice, but how does it make the country better? My reply would be that now, more than ever, the country needs beacons of dedication; exemplars of responsibility who know and deliver what the constitution asks of them, and who also know what the limits to their power are.
Sultan Abdul Halim was such a beacon: and may the light from his long reign shine for an equally long time. Al-Fatihah. Tunku Zain Al-‘Abidin founding president of Ideas. is