LETTER | In certain states, certain personalities are awarded or honoured by the governor regularly in conjunction with the birthday of the head of state annually together with other lesser titles.

It is indeed a very serious business that such high titles of the land are given to certain classes of people for whatever reasons known and unknown.

It is not known how the system of awarding such titles is carried out. I believe the process of the system allows such citizens to apply for such titles with the recommendation of prominent people in society. Some deserving citizens have been bestowed such titles even without applying for them.

Do I have the right as an ordinary citizen to query or even mention the prerogative of the head of state to bestow any such titles especially datuk-ship (in two classes)?

I do not intend to do that in this article which is also to bring awareness to society on the lopsidedness of certain practices of the very high office of the head of state.

The governor after the regular general election has to swear in the elected chief minister. The swearing of the chief minister can be a touchy matter as it was in 1985 and then in 2018 (33 years apart) when both cases went before the High Court over the appointment of the elected chief minister.

We know what happened in 1985 as high drama soon after the polling night were exposed in court. Soon on Oct 26, we may have the glimpse of the May 9 episode in the Istana over the appointment of two chief ministers in the High Court. It maybe sub judice to discuss it here.

It would be very interesting to view how the judiciary handled the “lopsided” high drama in the Istana case in its decision. The case is extraordinary as the result of the polls was a draw 29 - 29 (seats won by both sides) and thereafter the unfolding of high drama with the best stunning performance by the governor. Suffice for me to stop here.

The other very obvious case is the award of titles by the governor which have been commented on in the press. Is it lopsidedness when datuk-ship titles are bestowed liberally on government leaders when such titles are meant only for the contribution of dedicated services?

Isn’t it a surprise that DAP came out with a statement that members of DAP should only receive or accept a datuk-ship on retirement namely after serving the people?

Isn’t it that personalities on both sides of the political divide do serve the people with dedication? If that is so, why should only people in government be bestowed such high titles? This is an irony of the system is that some people only serve a few months in government providing but have been honoured with such high titles without being given lower titles first.

If this is pushed a bit further, there are many senior civil servants who are never bestowed such high titles even after years of dedicated public service on retirement. So I hope this may not demoralise the genuine faithful, senior civil servants to keep working for the good of the society.

On the other hand, there have been cases of recipients who had their high titles revoked by the head of state but there have only been a few cases over the decades. Maybe such revocations were not publicly announced.

So this article must end with why some people so much desire a datuk-ship even going to the extent of “procuring” them as regularly exposed in the social and mass media. They simply cannot wait for their turn if they have served society well in the political divide. It has been observed time and time again that the “frogs” to the government side from the opposition were rewarded with high titles too.

If there is much benefit to secure such titles apart for the status and the prestige of owning them, then it goes without saying that economic and financial returns will be great too.

So to bring justice to all without fear or favour, such people holding high titles should declare their assets at the time of the award and every year thereafter to bring greater honour to such titles. Maybe in their asset declarations, they could also include how much they have donated to t5he needy to cement the purpose of holding such titles.

As for me, I remain an ordinary citizen forever.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.