KUALA LUMPUR: Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said the Crown Prince of Johor or TMJ ‘probably does not understand the concept of Federation’.
The Prime Minister said this following Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim’s persistent barbs against the Pakatan Harapan (PH) administration.
“He does not understand the Federation. Perhaps this is because he hadn't been born yet at the time so he does not know, but I was.
“The (concept of) Federation means that it has power over the entire country and we can’t say this and that can’t be done,” said Dr Mahathir during a press conference after chairing the PH presidential council, here, today.
“We have a list of what is under the state and Federation (federal government’s) powers respectively.
“But nowhere is it stated in the Federation that the federal government cannot comment when the state makes a statement,” he added.
Asked on the Johor sultanate's acceptance of his leadership, Dr Mahathir merely said that “he (Tunku Ismail) does not not hold any posts.”
TMJ has sparred with the federal government on numerous issues such as water and land entitlement.
Putrajaya’s recent insistence that Pulau Kukup, a pristine wetland and Ramsar site, must remain as a gazetted national park also heightened the disagreements.
The BN state government had previously approved a move to re-gazette the island in Johor as sultanate land instead.
According to Johor’s Sultanate Land Enactment, any property gazetted under it belongs to the Sultan.
Johor’s Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar had said that Pulau Kukup would be gazetted as both sultanate land and a national park under the Johor National Parks Corporation Enactment 1989.
Recently Tunku Ismail also reminded the PH government to “stop politicising issues” and focus on running the country.
Tunku Ismail said he was even willing to be “public enemy No. 1” in his desire to act as a check-and-balance for the government.