Malaysia’s royal families yesterday picked a sports-loving sultan as the nation’s new king after the last monarch abdicated in a historic first following his reported marriage to a Russian former beauty queen.
The previous king, Sultan Muhammad V, stepped aside this month following just two years on the throne after reports surfaced that he had married the former Miss Moscow while on medical leave.
There was great shock across Malaysia at the first abdication of a monarch in the country’s history.
Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah, a keen athlete who holds a string of positions on sporting bodies, including at world soccer governing body FIFA, was elected as the new king during a special meeting of Malaysia’s Islamic royalty.
Abdullah “has been chosen as the 16th Yang di-Pertuan Agong [king] for a period of five years starting from January 31, 2019,” said a statement from Keeper of the Rulers’ Seal Syed Danial Syed Ahmad.
Malaysia is a constitutional monarchy, with a unique arrangement where the national throne changes hands every five years between rulers of the nation’s nine states headed by Islamic royalty.
Eight of the state sultans earlier met at the national palace in Kuala Lumpur for the so-called “Conference of Rulers” to select the new king. The only one absent was Muhammad V, who remains the sultan of the northeastern state of Kelantan despite having abdicated as the national monarch.
Abdullah was widely expected to become king as the central state of Pahang was next in line to provide the monarch.
The 59-year-old was named Pahang’s new ruler — replacing his elderly, ailing father — several days after Muhammad V’s abdication, paving the way for him to become the next national monarch.
The deputy king was named as Sultan Nazrin Shah of Perak State, the statement said.
As well as being a member of the FIFA Council, Abdullah is president of the Asian Hockey Association and a former head of the Football Association of Malaysia.
After attending school in Malaysia, the keen polo player went on to study in Britain, where he attended the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, according to a biography published on Bernama.
After Pahang, the next state due to provide a king is Johor. The sultan of Johor, which borders Singapore, is one of the nation’s most wealthy and powerful Islamic rulers, and has his own private army.
To be elected as the national king, a sultan must be supported by at least five of the state rulers.
While their role is ceremonial, Malaysia’s royalty command great respect, especially from the country’s Muslim Malay majority, and criticizing them is strictly forbidden.
Portraits of the king and queen adorn government buildings throughout the country. The king is also the symbolic head of Islam in the nation, as well as the nominal chief of the military.
Malaysia’s sultans trace a lineage back to the Malay sultanates of the 15th century.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was