The words attributed to a former King of France; in the days before France abolished monarchy. It seems that the attitude summed up in that quotation still exists in some Malaysian States with hereditary rulers still adopting the attitude that they are “absolute monarchs”

That of course, is no longer so. The government of Malaysia’s monarchical States is vested in the people of those States and managed by their elected representatives. The parallel with the United Kingdom, the former colonial power, is almost exact. The Head of a State may appoint the chief executive but it is the people who choose him or her.

With the departure from office of the criminal Najib and his associates there could not be a better time for a general recognition by all concerned of the actual twenty first century role of the Rulers and the limitations placed on it by democratic principle. To be granted thirteen millions year by the elected representatives and then to spend nearly twenty times that amount is a flagrant abuse of democracy, made possible by a mega crooked Prime Minister. All that has to stop. Parliament decides how much is to be spent on all public purposes and no one has the right to ignore its decisions. The excess will be recovered out of Najib’s hide or sanctioned by even longer imprisonment.

Let us all be clear about that and about the provisions of the Constitution