KUALA LUMPUR: Those who claim to respect the royal institution and constitution cannot act in ways that contradict those principles, says MCA president Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong.
Wee said this in calling for the King’s powers to grant pardons to be respected.
He said there should be no contradictions of the decisions made by His Majesty Sultan Ibrahim, King of Malaysia, concerning former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s house arrest.
“We cannot, on the one hand, proclaim our respect for the royal institution and our commitment to defending the Constitution, while on the other hand, act in ways that contradict those very principles,” he said in a statement.
He said any legal questions surrounding Najib’s house arrest should be resolved swiftly through the proper channels rather than used as grounds for delaying its implementation.
The Attorney-General’s Chambers said today that seeking a court ruling on Najib’s house arrest did not override the King’s power to grant pardons.
It said the King’s constitutional authority to grant pardons and the courts’ power to interpret the legal effect of an order were separate matters.
Wee said respect for the rule of law and respect for the constitutional authority of the Ruler were not mutually exclusive.
“True respect is not measured by how loudly we proclaim our loyalty, but by whether our actions consistently uphold the constitutional authority of His Majesty and the dignity of our constitutional monarchy,” he said.
Yesterday, Umno paid Najib’s RM50 million fine at the Kuala Lumpur High Court, fulfilling a condition of the royal pardon granted by Yang di-Pertuan Agong Sultan Ibrahim on Sept 18.
The pardon allows Najib to serve the remainder of his SRC International prison sentence under house arrest until Aug 23, 2028, subject to compliance with stipulated conditions.
However, the A-GC subsequently called for the implementation of house arrest to be temporarily deferred pending clarification of legal questions surrounding the pardon and the effect of the High Court’s orders.