Despite some drama, Najib swore in as the Malaysia 6th PM

KUALA LUMPUR, — Much like the 12 months before, the last 24 hours of Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s tenure as prime minister was marked with the royalty flexing its muscles, some intrigue and with the rumour factory in Kuala Lumpur in overdrive.

The day began with the palace exerting some control over the handover of power between Abdullah and his successor, Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak.After watching politicians and civil servants muddle up the protocol and procedures over the past few days, Istana Negara set everyone straight, much to the embarrassment of senior civil servants and the Prime Minister’s Department.

The core of the problem was the public statements that Abdullah was going to seek an audience with the Yang Di-Pertuan Agong to tender his resignation and recommend a successor with Najib accompanying him.

Palace officials baulked at this idea, saying that this would have been against the norm.

Protocol dictates that the Malaysian King should meet the prime minister who wants to resign, consider his request to step down, listen to his choice of a successor and then make a decision.

If he accepts the resignation, then he can grant an audience to the person who has been identified as the incoming leader of Malaysia.

The Malaysian Insider understands that the palace were also displeased with invitations sent out.

Palace officials informed senior civil servants that the King would appreciate if the proper procedures and the protocol were followed. As such, this morning only Abdullah was allowed to meet the King at 11am. They met for an hour.

Only after this meeting was over and Abdullah had left the palace grounds, did the King meet Najib.

This departure from what had been announced by the government set off the rumour mill. SMSes were sent saying that the swearing in ceremony of the new PM was being postponed from 10am tomorrow to a later date.

The Malaysian Insider has learnt that palace officials felt that despite several lapses by government officials, these were not fatal to have the swearing-in ceremony called off.

So the swearing in ceremony of Najib as the sixth prime minister will be at 10am tomorrow.

This episode is another example of the constitutional monarchy moving to carve out some territory for itself in the altered landscape of post-election Malaysia, and remind the executive that despite fewer weapons in its arsenal, the royalty will not play the role of a rubber stamp.

Talk that the swearing of the prime minister was being postponed was also fuelled by the release of a letter sent by the 81 Opposition MPs to the palace, asking the King to postpone appointing Najib as PM until he was cleared of allegations against him.

The MPs noted that the PM was the top job in the country and should be held by someone of high integrity and clean.

“Lately the DPM has been implicated in many scandals such as the commission for the purchase of French submarines. The most shocking is the murder of the Mongolian woman in which his name has been implicated. This has been published by newspapers around the world.

“Because of all these things and the fact that the position of the PM is very important, it is appropriate for Seri Paduka Baginda postpone the swearing-in ceremony of the PM until all the allegations are investigated by an independent commission and his name is cleared.’’

The conspiracy theorists had a field day with the letter, relying on it as proof that Najib’s ascension to the top job in the country was doomed.

At 7.30pm, Bernama published a report headlined “King Consents to Najib’s Appointment as Sixth PM’’, ending another crazy cycle of rumours in Malaysia. (TMI)