The Economist - USA (2021-02-20)

The Economist February 20th 2021 Asia 33

I

n a landmarkelection in 2018, Malay-

sians voted for change. Instead, they

got upheaval. Appalled by the growing

venality of the ruling United Malays

National Organisation (umno), in power

since the country’s founding, they

plumped instead for Pakatan Harapan

(“Alliance of Hope”). Yet bickering within

the new government led, a year ago, to its

collapse, and the emergence of a differ-

ent coalition, including umno, that is

itself perpetually rumoured to be on the

brink of implosion.

Few are happy. Malaysians voted for

Pakatan Harapan’s promises of good

governance, enhanced democracy and an

end to racially divisive politics. Yet the

new prime minister, Muhyiddin Yassin,

hounds critics and spreads patronage

about like manure—just like the good

ex-umnoman he is. Ordinary folk grum-

ble at the government’s handling of the

coronavirus pandemic, at once arbitrary

and repressive.

The country’s royals, by contrast, are

in clover. Nine of Malaysia’s 12 states

have monarchs: seven sultans, a raja and,

in Negeri Sembilan, a ruler-for-life elect-

ed by four local grandees. The nine royals

take turns to serve five-year terms as

Yang di-Pertuan Agong(“He Who is Made

Lord”)—the constitutional head of the

Malaysian federation.

In their states, the sultans exercise

considerable theoretical power: approv-

ing the chief minister, controlling the

civil service and, in Johor, even com-

manding the palace guard. But at the

federal level, recent kings have taken a

back seat in politics. Their role in the

appointment of prime ministers had

been considered largely ceremonial.

Last year’s political turmoil thrust the

current agong, the sultan of Pahang, into

prominence. Pakatan Harapan fell as the

nonagenarian prime minister, Mahathir

Mohamad, and Anwar Ibrahim, who

hoped to succeed him, feuded. Dr Ma-

hathir resigned as prime minister, appar-

ently hoping to form a new government

that excluded Mr Anwar. But the agong

instead turned to Mr Muhyiddin, who

then took ages to prove his majority in

parliament. As William Case of the Uni-

versity of Nottingham Malaysia puts it, the

king became the kingmaker.

A few months later Mr Anwar sought

time with the agong, claiming that he had

“convincing” evidence that he could com-

mand a parliamentary majority. For sever-

al days the monarch found himself conve-

niently incapacitated. Even Mr Muhyiddin

failed last year to persuade him to declare

a state of emergency to tackle the pandem-

ic (and helpfully forestall a vote of no

confidence in the prime minister). Only in

January, on the second request, when Mr

Muhyiddin again looked like losing his

shaky majority, did the king accede.

As political power fragments, royal

influence will only grow, says James Chin

of the University of Tasmania. The rulers

are officially the guardians both of the

culture of Malaysia’s Malay majority and

of their religion, Islam. They still have

considerable constitutional powers,

although Dr Mahathir, during a previous

stint as prime minister, took some away.

There is a commercial dimension to

their authority. The sultans influence

how land is used in their states. They can

also benefit from property developments

accompanying federal projects, such as a

planned high-speed railway. In Johor the

royal family has prospered from deals

with nearby Singapore and from a China-

backed boondoggle, Forest City. Critics

make the comparison to the Thai royal

family’s prodigious if opaque holdings.

Patron-client business networks run

through Malaysian royal circles, as they

do through its politics. No aspiring

prime minister would be foolish enough

to ignore the sultans’ interests.

Not all Malaysians are happy. In Se-

langor, the sultan’s heir is behind an

unpopular bid to turn a tract of protected

forest over for development. A daughter

of the agongis chairman of a company

involved in a bitter land dispute with

durian farmers.

Many want the royals to stick to In-

stagram. There, one of them touchingly

touts inelegant baking efforts, another

her sonic healing and, in the case of the

crown prince of Johor (once involved in a

nightclub brawl with another royal), a

rather naff polo-and-private-plane life-

style. Someone who is acquainted with

several royals calls them, on balance, “a

gruesome bunch”. Yet few will denounce

them in public. As in Thailand, the royals

are protected by draconian laws, in-

cluding the one against sedition. While

they kept away from politics, why cross

them? Cross them now, says one politic-

ian, and it could be jail.

As Malaysia’s politicians bicker, its royals gain authority

Banyan The swing to the sultans

airguns. At least three people were injured.

The commander-in-chief probably

hopes that the protests will quickly peter

out. “At the end of the month, people will

need to draw their salaries,” points out

Khin Zaw Win, director of the Tampadida

Institute, a think-tank in Yangon. But if

other civil servants are as determined as

Mr Ko Ko, the regime will need to think

again. “We aren’t afraid of losing our jobs,”

he says, noting that many mutual-aid

funds are being set up to support workers

who are sacked for their activism. “We

want our freedom back.” 

name), a manager at a branch of ayabank
in Yangon. He and almost all his colleagues
have been on strike since last week.
The government pays bills and salaries
and disburses pensions via Myanma Eco-
nomic Bank (meb). But so many of its em-
ployees are on strike that it is at a “near
standstill”, says Mr Jolliffe, who is studying
the civil-disobedience movement. With
many tax collectors on strike, too, the coup
leaders may end up with neither the infra-
structure nor the money to pay staff. “This
is a real pressure point and is something
the military probably did not include in

their game plan,” says Mr Jolliffe.

The army commander and junta leader,

Min Aung Hlaing, seems to be getting skit-

tish. State newspapers warn that those

who encourage “dutiful civil servants” to

go on strike will be “seriously punished le-

gally”. Security services have begun a cam-

paign of intimidation to try to force public-

sector workers back to their posts. On Feb-

ruary 14th protesters outside a branch of

mebin Mandalay, Myanmar’s second city,

were urging the remaining employees to

abandon their desks when soldiers and po-

lice began firing ball bearings at them from