Value of Honorific Titles in Malaysia

**The above is a picture of the Sultan of Brunei handing out an award to an unknown recipient**

Scenes like the one above is very common in Malaysia. Sultans of Malaysian states give out Honorific titles on their birthday to people he deems to have served the country / state / His Majesty's cause / making the country proud. Now as far as I know, there is no properly outlined criteria for how these people get their titles. It is generally very vague and up to the His Highness's decision.
He can give and take back the titles as he sees fit.

If you need an example to see has been the casualty of having their titles taken back, look no further than our former MCA man, Chua Jui Meng (pardon the lack of Datuk; already taken back mah...).
Not much reason was given as to why his was taken back, except that the Sultan of Johor see it fit.

Back to the main point I was trying to make. I do feel that our esteemed Sultans are giving away too many titles. Seeing yesterdays news that the Sultan of Pahang giving out 164 awards on His Majesty's Birthday leaves me a bit uneasy (click on the link to read the news).

If my memory serves me right, 10 states out of the 14 in Malaysia has Rulers that can bestow titles upon outstanding individuals. Now if each of them gives out at least 50 titles a year,t hat works out to be 500 individuals with a minimum of a Datukship a year. In 10 years, we'd have 5000 all over the streest of Malaysia.

In my opinion, I think by then (in fact by now) the value of a honorific title will diminish. In fact there are several unsavoury characters that still hold these titltes despite being found guilty of immoral / illegal acts. Hence that is why there is a negative public perception regarding Datuks. Most will assume them to be power grabbing rich people, who are above every1 else. In fact some of them actually think they are much better than us regular citizens. They will make it a point that ordinary people like us are 2nd class citizens and should be segregated.

In the end, I believe that these titles should be given out sparingly. I would hope that it would be akin to the one given out by the Queen of United kingdom, where not many people will receive knighthoods (which carries the title Sir). That way, people will respect the achievement of the person which carries such a title as it is very difficult to achieve. Either that, or we should totallys crap this "caste" style honorific system. Every1 is equal, whether you are rich or poor, smart or other wise.

We are born equal, and as such, we deserve the same treatment and cannot be treated as second class citizens. If the only use of these titles are for lisuse and malpractice, I believe we should scrap it. It is supposed to be used as a recognition for outstanding service, and I still believe it should be so.

I do hope by the time i receive a Datukship, it is still something that the society looks up upon. =)



Boodyboy, out!!!