COMMENT Given what has happened in Selangor, it is perhaps instructive for us to go through the law and practice that regulate the appointment of, as well as the change in, a government.

Both the federal and state levels of government in Malaysia practice the Westminster mode of governance. As some of the states in the federation do not have hereditary monarchs, we actually have some little republics – namely Malacca, Penang, Sabah and Sarawak – within the same system.

Such is indeed an interesting subject for study. That, notwithstanding the powers given to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, the rulers and the Yang di-Pertua Negeri, when it comes to appointing government, are actually the same.

For one thing such power is a creation of the Federal Constitution. Unlike the power pertaining to religion, for example. It is of course found in the constitution, but its origin is not from the Westminster convention...