KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 16 — The Yang Dipertuan Besar of Negeri Sembilan, Tuanku Muhriz Tuanku Munawir, publicly reprimanded Menteri Besar Datuk Ismail Lasim as the state’s constitutional crisis drags on.
Videos circulating on social media show the ruler telling a group of people that Ismail had written to the Keeper of the Rulers’ Seal to say that Tuanku Muhriz was no longer the state’s Yang Dipertuan Besar.
A visibly angry Tuanku Muhriz then asked why the menteri besar wanted an audience with him.
“Why does he want to see me? Until he retracts what he said earlier, go away,” he said, before turning to address Ismail directly.
“Don’t see me, I don’t want to see you. You understand? I am the Yang Dipertuan Besar but you said I am not.”
Ismail responded with the angkat sembah, the customary gesture of greeting royalty.
Worshippers at the mosque were heard chanting “Daulat Tuanku” after the reprimand.
Negeri Sembilan has been gripped by a royal crisis since April, when four individuals claiming to be undang, or chieftains, declared that Tuanku Muhriz had been removed as ruler.
In June, the same disputed undang purportedly proclaimed Tunku Nadzaruddin Tuanku Ja’afar as the “new” Yang Dipertuan Besar at a five-star hotel in Melaka.
Last month, Ismail endorsed a statement by his state executive council that purportedly affirmed Tuanku Muhriz’s removal. The ruler later revoked the appointments of the entire state executive council.