KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Unlike the British, who have seen the House of Windsor publicly stripped of its last strands of dignity, Asians still tend to respect their royalty.
In Thailand, King Bhumibol Adulyadej is so widely revered that a brief speech from the throne last year was all it took to end months of clashes between the government and pro-democracy demonstrators. In Brunei, Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah was pulled through the streets in a wooden chariot by worshipful subjects last October for the 25th anniversary of his rule, although the country's constitution has remained suspended since 1962.
Even in ultramodern Japan, the Chrysanthemum Throne is still treated with reverence. When Crown Prince Naruhito finally found a princess last month, the nation celebrated and predicted the match would even lift the deflated stock market.
The same can no longer be said for Malaysia. For the past three months, the government of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammed has waged an extraordinary campaign against Malaysia's royal houses in an effort to whip up public support for a constitutional amendment stripping away many of their legal privileges.
The controversy is really a battle for the hearts and minds of the country's ethnic Malays, who constitute a nearly 60% majority of the population of 19 million and who practice Islam. (About one-third of the population is ethnic Chinese and the rest mostly Indian.) The hereditary rulers are cultural symbols to the Malays.
"The Malay now faces an implacable dilemma," said journalist M.G.G. Pillai. "He reveres the ruler as his feudal lord, to whom he goes from protection--and often gets it--from political and administrative excesses. He sees the attempt to rein in the rulers as another step to eliminate them from Malay society and which could lead to other entrenched constitutional clauses--like Islam as the state religion or of the special rights for the Malays--to be similarly removed."
The open warfare with the sultans is a tremendous political gamble for Mahathir because the Malays who traditionally support the sultans are the same constituency that elected the prime minister to power. Also, since Malaysia's remarkable economic development has been largely driven by foreign investment, any whiff of instability could have a devastating impact.
The battle royal has turned decidedly nasty, with newspapers close to the government accusing the sultans of financial, sexual and even criminal improprieties--a form of public humiliation that is virtually unknown in Asian nations.
