Respond Kepada Kenyataan Tengku Temenggong Kelantan

Di bawah adalah respond kepada N3 saya yang bertajuk Statements Kartun Dari IstanaTak Habis-Habis! dari seorang yang lebih tahu.

An Impartial Analysis Of The Kelantan Palace's Imbroglio

Sunday, September 5, 2010

IS TENGKU TEMENGGONG IGNORANT OR LAWLESS?

Utusan Malaysia, Kosmo! and Sinar Harian’s reports dated August 25th 2010 which quoted the Tengku Temenggong of Kelantan as saying that Tuanku Ismail Petra is now fit to rule and is now resuming His duties as a Ruler (as, according to the Tengku Temenggong of Kelantan, a ruler needs not to be physically present to rule) are hereby referred to.

First of all, the Tengku Temenggong of Kelantan needs to be told (if he is ignorant) or reminded (if he is lawless) of Article VI of Laws of The Constitution of Kelantan (Second Part) which stipulates that “No one person shall succeed to the Throne and Sovereignty of Kelantan unless his succession has been confirmed by the Council of Succession” (its Malay translation being “Tidaklah boleh siapa-siapa pun menaiki Takhta dan Kerajaan Kelantan melainkan kenaikannya itu disahkan oleh Majlis Perajaan Negeri”).

Since these newspaper reports were published, people were being heard asking questions such as “who the hell did the Tengku Temenggong of Kelantan think he was when he made such a proclamation?”, “Was the Tengku Temenggong of Kelantan so ignorant to think that he has the power which is greater than that of the Council of Succession?”, “Was the Tengku Temenggong of Kelantan so ignorant to think that the term ‘Council of Succession’ actually refers to him?” and “Was the Tengku Temenggong of Kelantan that lawless?”.

We at The Kelantan Insider previously did not want to make any comment on these statements of the Tengku Temenggong of Kelantan as we sincerely did not want to insult the intelligence of the people whom we thought are mature and reasonable enough to evaluate them. One Kelantanese blogger (http://mountdweller.blogspot.com)’s simple response, in his blog posting dated August 25th 2010, to these statements of the Tengku Temenggong of Kelantan (Kelantan - Statements Kartun Dari Istana Tak Habis-Habis!) is indeed so reflective of this.

However, after realizing that not everyone has the capacity to rightly evaluate the plausibility of what the Tengku Temenggong of Kelantan had said and after people were being heard wondering why we at The Kelantan Insider did not bother to refute these seemingly silly statements as usual, then we hereby feel compelled to do so.

We, nevertheless, do not want to waste much of our valuable time on this. Suffice to ask the Tengku Temenggong of Kelantan, his cohort and the people these two simple questions:

First Question:

With regard to provisions of Laws of The Constitution of Kelantan (besides to traditions and conventions), there are so many instances where His Royal Highness, in ruling the state, is obliged to perform certain physical duties, the most basic of which is just to sign documents.

These duties are stated so clearly in provision such as “(These people) shall be appointed by His Royal Highness by Instrument under His Sign Manual and the State Seal” (its Malay translation being “(Orang-orang ini) hendaklah dilantik oleh Kebawah Duli Yang Maha Mulia melalui Surat di bawah tandatangan Baginda dan Mohor Negeri”).

So, the big question to be answered by the Tengku Temenggong of Kelantan is: Can it be conclusively proven that Tuanku Ismail Petra can now sign documents?

What we at The Kelantan Insider know is that Tuanku Ismail Petra still cannot do so (in fact there was already an instance where documents purportedly signed by Tuanku Ismail Petra were rejected by a business entity for not being authentic enough).

Second Question:

With regard to other provisions of Laws of The Constitution of Kelantan, there are so many instances where His Royal Highness, in ruling the state, is obliged to use His reasoning faculty to arrive at certain decisions.

These duties are stated so clearly in provisions such as “His Royal Highness shall in His DISCRETION”, “His Royal Highness may act in His DISCRETION”, “His Royal Highness shall CONSIDER” or “His Royal Highness shall appoint (someone) who in His JUDGMENT” (their Malay translations being “Kebawah Duli Yang Maha Mulia hendaklah MENGIKUT BUDI BICARA Baginda”, “Kebawah Duli Yang Maha Mulia bolehlah memutuskan MENGIKUT TIMBANGANNYA”, “Kebawah Duli Yang Maha Mulia hendaklah MENIMBANG” or “Kebawah Duli Yang Maha Mulia hendaklah melantik (seseorang) yang MENGIKUT TILIKANNYA”).

So, the big question to be answered by the Tengku Temenggong of Kelantan is: Can it be conclusively proven that Tuanku Ismail Petra can now arrive at these complex decisions?

What we at The Kelantan Insider know is that Tuanku Ismail Petra still cannot do so.

For the benefit of the Tengku Temenggong of Kelantan, hereby is attached a sample of what the duties of a Ruler are (as stipulated in Article XV(2) of Laws of The Constitution of Kelantan (First Part)):

His Royal Highness may act in His discretion in the performance of the following functions (in addition to those in the performance of which He may act in His discretion under the Federal Constitution), that is to say –
(a) The appointment of a Menteri Besar;
(b) The withholding of consent to a request for the dissolution of the Legislative Assembly;
(c) The making of a request for a meeting of the Conference of Rulers concerned solely with the privileges, position, honours and dignities of Their Royal Highnesses or religious acts, abservances or ceremonies;
(d) Any function as Head of the religion of Islam or relating to the custom of the Malays;
(e) The appointment of an Heir or Heirs, Consort, Regent or Council of Regency;
(f) The appointment of persons to Malay customary ranks, titles, honours and dignities and the designation of the functions appertaining thereto;
(g) The regulation of royal courts and palaces.

Its Malay translation being:

Kebawah Duli Yang Maha Mulia bolehlah memutuskan mengikut timbangannya di dalam menjalankan kewajipan-kewajipan yang tersebut di bawah ini (selain daripada kewajipan-kewajipan yang boleh diputuskan mengikut timbangannya menurut Perlembagaan Persekutuan) iaitu:
(a) Melantik Menteri Besar;
(b) Menahankan persetujuannya di atas permintaan hendak membubarkan Dewan Negeri itu;
(c) Meminta diadakan mesyuarat Majlis Raja-Raja yang semata-mata berkenaan dengan kebebasan-kebebasan, taraf kedudukannya, kehormatan-kehormatan dan darjah kebesaran Kebawah Duli-Duli Yang Maha Mulia atau berkenaan dengan perkara-perkara, upacara-upacara atau istiadat agama;
(d) Apa-apa jua kewajipan sebagai Ketua agama Islam atau berkenaan dengan adat istiadat orang Melayu;
(e) Melantik Waris atau Waris-Warisnya, Raja Perempuan, Pemangku Raja atau Majlis Pangkuan Raja;
(f) Perlantikan orang kepada pangkat, gelaran-gelaran, kehormatan-kehormatan dan kebesaran adat Melayu, dan menugaskan kewajipan-kewajipan yang bersangkut-paut dengannya;
(g) Kawalan balai-balai penghadapan dan istana raja.

Dari Kelantan Insider