The New King

13th December 2006 marks another significant calendar of the ascension to the throne of the Supreme Ruler of our country, which in short is the Yang Di Pertuan Agong. Ironically the 13th also coincides with Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin ibni Al-Marhum Sultan Mahmud Al-Muktafi Billah Shah of Trengganu being the 13th Yang Di Pertuan Agong of our country. Born on January 22, 1962 and now at the age of 44 , he could easily be considered as the youngest Sultan ever to be the Agong. He became the Sultan of Trengganu on May 15th 1998 following the demise of his father Sultan Mahamud Al-Muktafi Billah Shah, who incidentally both Ainul and I used to know well when we were in Kuala Trengganu in the good old Felda days when I was the Regional Secretary for Felda ( then better known as FLDA )for Trengganu and Kelantan, meaning that my responsibilities covered the two east coast States land schemes. Like his father, this new King is a horse rider. Horse riding was the thing that brought me to know his late father then. My uncle Tunku Mahmud, popularly known as Yah Mud, whose hobby until today is horse riding and he owns one too, took my elder brother Faisal or Jang as he is generally called by my uncles and aunties, and I to the Sultan’s stable and asked both of us to have a ride on a horse that he always rode then. It was at that particular day that the Sultan happened to come around to see who was riding one of his horses. By chance I was just about to ride the horse which was earlier on ridden by my brother. With the queer riding style that I did, which was one handed and somewhat like a rodeo rider, the Sultan was amused and inquired my uncle as to who we were. When my uncle told him we were the sons of Tunku Kechil Besar Tunku Hussain, the Sultan gave a knowing node and told me to go ahead and ride and at the same time he said we should come again. We sat down chit chatting later and we found him a very friendly person indeed. But of course his wife, the Tengku Ampuan knows Ainul well since they were in the Malay Girls College together in the early days. Anyway, let me not side track and come back to our main topic of the New King of our country.

Thus with Tuanku Mizan ascension he is amongst the long line of the previous Kings , who in their order of duties include Tuanku Abdul Rahman ( Negeri Sembilan ), Sultan Hisamuddin Alam Shah ( Selangor ) , Tuanku Syed Putra (Perlis ), Sultan Ismail Nasiruddin Shah ( Trengganu ) Sultan Abdul Halim Muadzam Shah ( Kedah ), Syed Yahya Petra (Kelantan), Sultan Ahmad Shah ( Pahang), Sultan Mahmood Iskandar (Johor), Sultan Azlan Shah (Perak), Tuanku Jaafar (Negeri Sembilan), Sultan Salahuddin Abadul Aziz Shah ( Selangor ), Tuanku Syed Sirajuddin ( Perlis ), Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin ibni Al-Marhum Sultan Mahmud Al-Muktafi Billah Shah (Trengganu).

It is interesting to note that Tuanku Mizan will be the youngest Sultan to hold the Agong’s appointment at the age of forty four , whilst the appointment of his son Tengku Muhammad Ismail as the heir and Regent of his State , makes the prince the youngest Malay prince to hold such a post in any State in Malaysia. Added to that of course, to leave matters of the State in the hands of the eight year old prince, albeit under the care and advisors duly appointed by him, is a precedent and unique to his State. At the same time, the appointment of his uncle Tengku Farok Hussein as the new Royal Chamberlain or Datuk Paduka Maharaja Lela of Istana Negara at the age of forty two has him as the youngest civil servant ever to hold that appointment. This is indeed a record of some sort for our new King ! By the way, the first Royal Chamberlain was my late uncle Tunku Mustapha Tunku Besar Burhanuddin. And now with Tengku Farok’s appointment the post of Royal Chamberlain is back in our family’s hands, so to say ! Tengku Farok Hussein after all is my nephew.

Since the King is elected by his fellow Rulers once every five years to take turn to be one, it will be another forty five years before he will have his chance again to be King, by which time he would be eighty nine years old ! Hence I do not think any one of the Rulers would want to miss his turn to be the King. The Sultan of Kedah will be the new Deputy Agong comes December 13th and his will mark another significant event of a Sultan who becomes the Agong for the second time, provided of course God willing, he is still around in 2011. Of course politics wise we cannot speculate who will be the Prime Minister of the country next after Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi ! Most likely it should be Datuk Seri Najib Tun Abdul Razak of course but then anything could happen in politics.

Anyway, to our new King, Long Live The King !