The recent installation of the 13th Agong was certainly glittering. While all that glitters may not be gold, this particular event certainly sucks in a bundle of that precious metal. And Malaysia has an abundance of these royal extravaganzas. In its 50-year history, Malaysia has had more royal installations than general elections.

These elaborate royal rituals take their toll directly on the nation's treasury in terms of outlays and actual expenses, and indirectly through their impact on the nation's productivity. The latter is the more expensive and destructive burden.

At the most elementary (and readily comprehensible) level, you can bet that on the day of the installation, together with the preceding week of preparations and rehearsals as well as the few days following with the banquets and celebrations, ministers and senior civil servants would be consumed with the event. All meaningful works in the various ministries and departments would have come to a screeching halt. Not that much gets accomplished on any regular workday anyway.

At the abstract level, these sultans squat on the apex of the special privileges heap. Additionally for Malays, these sultans are more than the constitutional symbolic head of state; they are also the head of Islam, and Allah's representatives on earth. Why God would need such a representative escapes me. There are no such references in the Quran, and most Muslim countries have done away with their sultans.