by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, in Petaling Jaya on Saturday, 20th March 1993:
Attorney-General should declare his stand on Mahathir’s claim that the Kelantan throne issue could be adjudicated by the Special Court far the Rulers under the 1993 Constitution Amendment Bill
The claim by the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamed, when he visited Kelantan yesterday that the Kelantan throne issue could be adjudicated by the Special Court for the Rulers under the 1993 Constitution Amendment Bill is most surprising.
It must have come as a surprise not only the the Rulers who, with the exception of the Sultan of Kelantan, bad given their consent to the constitutional amendment, but to government Ministers, MPs and the country at large.
It is significant that it has taken Dr. Mahathir about two weeks after he had first raised the Kelantan throne issue to make the surprising claim that the Special Court far the Rulers under the 1993 Constitution Amendment Bill could adjudicate on issues concerning claims to the Throne in the various states, completely by-passing the various State Constitutions.
There is no doubt that if this matter had been raised., either at the Conference of Rulers or at the two special parliamentary meetings on the 1993 Constitution Amendment Bill to remove the Rulers’ immunity as to whether the Special Court of Rulers can adjudicate on issues affecting legitimacy claims to the thrones of the various states, the government would have answered in the negative.
If the Special Court of Rulers is meant to adjudicate on issues affecting legitimacy claims to the thrones in the various states, such jurisdiction should have been specifically spelt out in the 1.993 Constitution Amendment Bill.
Dr. Mahathir’s claim that the 1993 Constitution Amendment Bill can adjudicate an issues affecting legitimacy claims to the thrones of the various states has introduced a completely new element to the constitutional crisis.
The Attorney-General, Tan Sri Abu Talib, should publicly declare his stand as to whether the Special Court for Rulers under the 1993 Constitution Amendment Bill has jurisdiction to adjudicate on legitimacy claims to the thrones of the various states.