Malaysia yesterday chose the sultan of Johor as its next king, a role that has become increasingly important in determining who takes power in the Southeast Asian nation.
The country’s royal families elected Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar, the ruler of the nation’s southernmost state bordering Singapore, an official statement said.
Sultan Ibrahim, who commands a private army and has significant business interests, is to replace King Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah, whose term is set to expire in late January.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Malaysia has a unique constitutional monarchy where nine state royals take turns to serve five-year terms. The king plays a largely ceremonial role, but he has discretion to decide certain things, such as who becomes prime minister if no party has a majority.
The appointment comes at a high point in the monarchy’s power since Malaysia gained independence in 1957. The king’s influence has grown ever since the Barisan Nasional alliance that had ruled Malaysia for more than six decades lost power in 2018, reshaping the nation’s political landscape.
The prime example was in November last year, when a general election led to Malaysia’s first-ever hung parliament. The king stepped in to break the deadlock, backing longtime opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim to form a unity government.
“The Johor sultan will become constitutional monarch at a time of the country’s political transition where governments will likely be post-election coalitions,” said Ibrahim Suffian, cofounder and director of Merdeka Center for Opinion Research, a Malaysian polling company. “The outgoing king has had to preside over fractious politics.”
A representative for the sultan of Johor declined to comment.
The announcement came after a meeting of a body called the Conference of Rulers at the national palace in Kuala Lumpur. Nine of Malaysia’s 13 states have royal families. Sultan Ibrahim is next in turn for the throne and no surprises are forecast.
The new king is to start his term on Jan. 31.
In business, Sultan Ibrahim has a stake in Forest City, a development of high-rise buildings off the coast of Johor that is expected to cost US$100 billion. A joint venture between troubled Chinese developer Country Garden Holdings Co and a Malaysian firm owned by Sultan Ibrahim, the Johor state government and others, it has faced challenges, including complaints from Singapore’s government and Beijing’s crackdown on citizens buying real-estate overseas.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sent Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) greetings with what appeared to be restrained rhetoric that comes as Pyongyang moves closer to Russia and depends less on its long-time Asian ally. Kim wished “the Chinese people greater success in building a modern socialist country,” in a reply message to Xi for his congratulations on North Korea’s birthday, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported yesterday. The 190-word dispatch had little of the florid language that had been a staple of their correspondence, which has declined significantly this year, an analysis by Seoul-based specialist service NK Pro showed. It said
On an island of windswept tundra in the Bering Sea, hundreds of miles from mainland Alaska, a resident sitting outside their home saw — well, did they see it? They were pretty sure they saw it — a rat. The purported sighting would not have gotten attention in many places around the world, but it caused a stir on Saint Paul Island, which is part of the Pribilof Islands, a birding haven sometimes called the “Galapagos of the north” for its diversity of life. That is because rats that stow away on vessels can quickly populate and overrun remote islands, devastating bird
‘CLOSER TO THE END’: The Ukrainian leader said in an interview that only from a ‘strong position’ can Ukraine push Russian President Vladimir Putin ‘to stop the war’ Decisive actions by the US now could hasten the end of the Russian war against Ukraine next year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday after telling ABC News that his nation was “closer to the end of the war.” “Now, at the end of the year, we have a real opportunity to strengthen cooperation between Ukraine and the United States,” Zelenskiy said in a post on Telegram after meeting with a bipartisan delegation from the US Congress. “Decisive action now could hasten the just end of Russian aggression against Ukraine next year,” he wrote. Zelenskiy is in the US for the UN
A 64-year-old US woman took her own life inside a controversial suicide capsule at a Swiss woodland retreat, with Swiss police on Tuesday saying several people had been arrested. The space-age looking Sarco capsule, which fills with nitrogen and causes death by hypoxia, was used on Monday outside a village near the German border. The portable human-sized pod, self-operated by a button inside, has raised a host of legal and ethical questions in Switzerland. Active euthanasia is banned in the country, but assisted dying has been legal for decades. On the same day it was used, Swiss Department of Home