Malaysia has 13 states – nine have hereditary Muslim Sultans. Two states in peninsular Malaysia fled the Europeans in the 1800s so lost their sultanship and the two states in Eastern Malaysia (Borneo) Sabah is largely Christian (in a largely Muslim country) that didn’t have a single historical ruling family and Sawark was ruled by the White Rajahs for a 150 years. The sultans from each of the nine states rotate being king for five year terms. There is a parliamentary system as well with regular elections that have always been won by the same party since independence. This allows the wealth and power to be spread around semi-evenly.
Overall, I am impressed with what the Malaysian government is trying to do (more later). But a King? A sultan? Doesn’t fit with my democratic American expectations. So of course, I look for examples that I can joke about
· When we were looking for housing, one condo had a great view looking down on the king’s new palace – think DFW NASCAR racetrack – that big . I really wanted to move into the condo so I could say, “I live above the king and look down on him daily”. Janet wisely suggested living that close to any head of state was a guarantee of access hassles (beside it wasn’t that great a condo). But wouldn’t it have been cool ………
· While we stayed a month in a hotel (The Prince) in KL City Center (KLCC) there were number of times when streets would clear – motorcycles – sirens wailing went down all lanes then some black luxury cars followed by rear guard of motorcycles. Locals told me it was the king, sultan, etc. I told them that is what I needed to get through the KL jams. It didn’t translate.
· I get a different taxi every morning (lots at hotel and condo) but have a main driver from HP office (traffic dead zone). Yus (met him while staying at the Prince) is a good guy and we share stories as much as his English allows (he keeps asking me how much Bahasa I know- right……). On Wednesday, I asked if he made any money that day and he sadly said no. It seems that the 35 year old son of the Sultan of Johor was staying at the Prince Hotel and whenever he was on the in the main lobby he didn’t want to see any cars or cabs blocking the view out of the front door. So it was a day of lining up to pick people up and then being chased away and then coming back, working through the line and then being chased away.
o Janet and I just missed sharing a hotel with the son of the Sultan – probably sounds better than the reality.
I’d make a much better son of a Sultan but don’t think I’ll get the chance to prove it ;-(
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