The 11th. Yam Tuan.

30 Dec 2008.

In an earlier posting I have said that the odds were on Tunku Muhriz being selected to become the new Yang Dipertuan Besar (Yam Tuan, for short).   I was right.

In fact when his father Tuanku Munawir died, as the "anak gehara" the four Undangs should have elected Tunku Muhriz to be  Yam Tuan.   Tunku Jaafar's mother was a Christian Eurasian nurse that Tuanku Abdul Rahman had taken as a second wife. The official excuse for passing over Tunku Muhriz was that at 18 years he was too young. So his uncle became Yam Tuan instead.

Tuanku Jaafar turned out to be a good Yam Tuan in many ways. He was well-educated and was in fact a very senior member of the Malaysian Civil Service. Because of this background he was relatively approachable even when he became the Yam Tuan. He was a good listener, and spoke well and understood what he read from the scripts given him, so much so on many occassions he even corrected or made spontaneous remarks on those notes he realized were not completely accurate. He also followed the political events of the country, and in private made fairly accurate comments about them. I know all these from personal experience. The length of his reign meant one could see the changes taking place within the palace over time. The unfortunate incident of the Special Courts ruling merits balanced reporting, and does no justice to the man.

The  children was another story. Suffice it to say that many of the rakyats of NS follow the stories about them, and considering that the Yam Tuan is the Head of the Islam,  these stories don't reflect well on that fact.

The quiet sympathy given to Tunku Muhriz grew more and more over the years. It was obvious to the Negeri Malays that he was given the short end of the stick, and in many cases it wasn't incidental negelect. He was the poor cousin nobody around the reigning family wanted to do anything with. Even the little old BMW he's driven around with is indicative of the disdain shown him by the powers that be in the State, both Royal and Political. That car broke down so many times in Seremban that the only thing saving it from mechanical retirement is the lack of replacement. The only noticable thing about it is probably the yellow-painted Royal numbers.

The sad truth is, to the 11th. hour there was an attempt to sabotage the Undangs' proceedings. It was only the forceful action of the Undang of Sungai Ujung (which by the way is the name of this blog, and the old name for Seremban) that saved Tunku Muhriz. The fact that all the four Undangs, despite not wearing the Ceremonial Dress, wore their krisses was perhaps noteworthy. Incidents of several attempts at political interference of the functioning of the Adat have become common knowledge to the Negeri Malays. Who is right or wrong is a matter of debate, but the legitamacy of the Adat is being tested as never before.

Tunku Muhriz is well-educated himself, and is known to be familiar with the Adat. That he has remained patient all these years is a credit to him.  Now that he's the Yam Tuan, he's in position to put right where there was wrong. Certainly he can make changes. For the better.

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