Johor Sultan sets Wednesdays aside for briefings on state affairs

In Johor, Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskander has set aside Wednesdays as an "Open Day", in which he is briefed by aides and experts on developments in his state. His Facebook post on the news claims that this is to "ensure development projects by the Johor state government and its agencies truly benefit the people". Overall, it is an interesting move given that the role of the monarch in the state is supposed to be ceremonial. Malaysia's 9 royal families each serve of heads and religious authorities of their respective state, but the most they do/are supposed to do in terms of governance is elect the king of Malaysia.

As such, this move by Sultan Ibrahim is seen with some amount of controversy by political figures like former PM Matathir Mohamad, who had previously written: "The rulers are to be paid handsome pensions and may not be involved in business. This was considered necessary because officers tend to defer to the wishes of rulers and would find difficulty in rejecting business propositions by them".

This was in response to a previous controversy with Sultan Ibrahim attempted to change the law in 2014 to allow him to appoint 4 members to the Johor Housing Board. Moreover, the bill would have allowed the Sultan to "appoint the committee members, decide how much they are paid as well as oversee the board's accounts, among other powers". In the end an edited version of the bill passed, stating that "the Sultan would act on the advice of the menteri besar and every reference to the ruler in the Bill was changed to the words 'the authorities'".

This article shows the boundaries between the Malaysian democratic state and the Malaysian monarchy. Sultan Ibrahim is breaking the established norm of the monarch as a figurehead. We have seen this previously when dealing with the launderette situation in Johor. Instead of the state stepping in, it was Sultan Ibrahim who told the owner to take the sign down and ordered an investigation behind the incident. As such, in the follow-up news, an MP complimented the Sultan on his response, but noted that that was not the job of His Majesty, declaring the need for the state to adopt an anti-discrimination law. All in all, this article shows how the different forces exert power in Malaysia and how they attempt to balance governance between the existing monarchs and the elected representatives, especially when the Monarch himself is a beloved figure.