20 years in prison awaits those who buy or sell titles

PETALING JAYA: Those buying or selling titles – real or otherwise – could face up to 20 years behind bars under a new Offences Relating to Awards Act 2017.

Those found misusing emblems, names and pictures could be imprisoned up to three years or made to pay a fine not exceeding RM20,000 or both under the Emblems and Names (Prevention of Improper Use) (Amendment) Act 2016.

Both laws came into effect recently to curb misuse of awards by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, Rulers and Yang di-Pertua Negeri. The laws have also been introduced to protect the prestige of the royal institutions.

Under Section 15 of the Offences Relating to Awards Act, any person by himself or via another, shall not solicit, receive or agree to receive, shall not give, promise or offer to any person any gratification as a consideration for procuring the grant of any award.

Section 13 covered unrecognised awards, Section 14 for investiture for unrecognised awards while Section 16 deals with unrecognised foreign awards.

Council of Federal Datuks Malaysia ( MDPM) president Tan Sri Danny Ooi said now that the law was in effect, priority was on enforcement and implementation.

“I think these laws are timely as we strive to get rid of the fake Datuks out there,” he said, adding that the council had been calling for stiffer penalties for the past seven to eight years.

Ooi said fake Datuks were those whom the Federal or state governments did not recognise.

“The other category are those who were not conferred the title but call themselves Datuk,”he said, adding that there were already numerous such cases.

Ooi said members of the public might be reluctant to come forward to expose bogus Datuks as they could be afraid of repercussions.

As such, he urged Malaysians to make use of the police’s volunteer smartphone patrol (VSP) mobile app to lodged complaints.