Vocal PKR lawmaker Hassan Karim has confirmed that one of the two charges levelled against him is for “touching” on the Malay rulers.
“This is because, in my writing, I linked the institution of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong as being the second biggest shareholder in U-Mobile and pointed out that under Article 34 (3) of the Federal Constitution, the Agong is forbidden from being actively involved in commercial business activities,” he told Malaysiakini.
The Pasir Gudang MP, however, pointed out that he did not mention Agong’s name or the words “Yang di-Pertuan Agong” in his social media post which landed him in trouble.
The current Agong, Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar, is the second biggest shareholder in the telecommunications firm with a 22.3 percent stake. The firm has been picked as the second operator for Malaysia’s 5G network.
The biggest shareholder is Straits Mobile Investments Pte Ltd – a subsidiary of Singapore’s Temasek-owned ST Telemedia – with 48.3 percent. However, it was announced that Straits Mobile Investments would reduce its shares to 20 percent.
Quite rightly PKR are fuming that this backbencher apparently sought to criticise the government for awarding a major high tech contract to a company whose second largest shareholder currently occupies the position of the federal kingship.
What cheek of this fellow to cite the constitution in that context. The PKR government are clearly correct in their interpretation of Article 34 and its primary purpose, which is obviously to ensure that the head of state does not demean themself by actual work whilst in the receipt of business benefits.