MALAYA: The Sultans Select

Amid the minarets and arabesques of the busy capital of Kuala Lumpur (pop. 300,000), a solemn convocation of sultans and state chieftains gathered last week. Their job: to elect the one of their number who for five years will be His Majesty the Paramount Ruler of the Independent State of Malaya (at a salary of $60,000 a year plus perquisites) when the new Commonwealth nation comes into being at the end of this month.

The sultans decided to choose among themselves by considering each in the order of his precedence, and crossing out the words “suitable” or “unsuitable.” Their most senior, His Highness the Sultan of Johore, the world’s longest-reigning monarch (since 1895) had declined the post because of his age (83). First up was the fun-loving Sultan of Pahang, who was rejected by his colleagues by a 3-to-6 vote, perhaps because his most recent romantic excursion wound up in a Moslem wedding to a Kuala Lumpur cabaret girl (TIME, May 6).

The second man on the list got the necessary majority. Malaya’s new ruler will be Tuanku Abdul Rahman, of the Malayan state of Negri Sembilan. This is sure to cause endless confusion, because the present Chief Minister of the Federation of Malaya is also named Abdul Rahman, and will continue in office as Prime Minister after independence. The name is a common one in Malaya, and they are not related. When both were law students in London, friends had difficulty with their honorifics—the newly elected Paramount Ruler is Tuanku (applied only to rulers and sometimes their eldest sons), while the present Chief Minister is Tengku, which means a royal prince.

The new Paramount Ruler, who is 61, has given his own state of Negri Sembilan more than 24 years of enlightened and progressive rule. He has worked diligently for compulsory education, and he is such a stickler for the Queen’s English that he used to return his children’s letters with red-ink corrections and careful explanations of their errors. He has been married 27 years to his present third wife and has 21 grandchildren.