Alunan Ombak: It reflects very badly on the royalties in general if they deny former PM Dr Mahathir Mohamad a rightful seat at the installation of the new king.

To humiliate Mahathir by withdrawing the prior invitation – and worse still, to physically remove his seat – will worsen the generally (doubtful) reputation of our royalties as a result of a few badly-behaved sultans and their household members.

The rakyat are now closely watching to see whether our royalties will come back to their senses regardless of the deep animosity between Mahathir and PM Najib Razak.

It is still not late to reverse the decision. The royalties have apparently been ill-advised.

Trueglitter: When an ex-premier could be subject to such degrading indignities by Istana Negara, it is clear indication the royal institution is not independent or above politics but beholden to the influence of Umno-BN government helmed by Najib.

It is a far departure from enactments enshrined in the Federal Constitution which dictates that our monarchy abstains from involvement in political matters.

The right-thinking public should be wary of the desperation of Umno-led BN and manipulative designs of Najib, who will leave no stone unturned to demonise and discredit Mahathir to negate his capability and influence in the opposition’s collective endeavours to trounce Umno-BN in the impending GE14.

The unprecedented alliance of opposition parties is all the more a deadly threat to Najib’s own political survival as the reality of his possible incarceration upon defeat of Umno-BN in the forthcoming election is not a mere threat.

Versey: I tend to agree with one of the commentators saying that in such an important occasion, the guest lists should have been carefully prepared, with the consent of the Conference of Rulers, before sending the invitations out.

It would be quite suspicious if the withdrawal was made by the Conference of Rulers.

Dr Suresh Kumar: The royalties should, and must, remain above politics at all times to safeguard the welfare of the people.

Mahathir may have his differences with the royalties, but to deny a former PM a seat at the ceremony is an abomination.

Whatsup: Mahathir should attend the event to show his respect for the new Yang di-Pertuan Agong as not attending would indicate a snub or even an insult – whether a chair is provided to him or not.

Stand if he has to, but respect the Agong he must.

Mushiro: Mahathir was sarcastic when he wrote that he apologised for making the wrong assumption (that the palace is above politics).

He further noted that Istana Negara now belongs to Najib and BN. This is clearly seditious and an insult to the Agong.

Let’s see if the inspector-general of police (IGP) will investigate and charge Mahathir. Or perhaps, the IGP will just ignore this.

Anonymous_4020: You invited a person and he accepted your invitation. Then you tell him that you have no seat for him and he has to stay at home.

Somewhere along the way we have lost our common courtesy that Malaysians are proud of

Just A Malaysian: The rakyat have clearly waited in vain for our royal highnesses to stand up to BN and provide a moral compass for all Malaysians.

What?MeWorry?: I keep deleting my comments as I am really at lost as to what I should write, but now I am just feeling ashamed because I sensed the whole world is laughing at us Malays.

PAS VP: Is M’sia sending mixed signals to Myanmar?

RCZ: I am confused, PAS vice-president Iskandar Abdul Samad. Why was this question posed only to Najib? Wasn’t your party president Abdul Hadi Awang at the Rohingya rally, too?

What will he say to this conflicting position of a protest attended by the PM no less and sending envoys to Myanmar at the same time?

Clever Voter: Malaysia lacks the international standing and respect to be heard and looked up to. News coverage of national scandals one after another does not augur well.

Further, its foreign policies are confusing and at best contradictory, influenced largely by the domestic agenda.

The Najib administration must recognise that if it wants to be leader in world affairs, it has to respect internationally-acceptable conventions which include human rights, freedom to expression, acceptable democratic structures, etc.

Sadly, we are far from these international norms. A good look at the mirror will be a good start.

Shibboleth: The PAS VP is naive. The PM’s and DPM’s sudden interest in the plight of the Rohingya is to drum up Muslim support and to court PAS leaders.

The Armed Forces chief’s visit is to find out how to stop the illegal entry of the Rohingya. Let the Burmese handle their own internal issue. We should be more concerned for the plight of the Orang Asli in Gua Musang. Some of them are Muslims, too.

Abasir: To quote one of our singularly brilliant ministers in the cabinet, Klang MP Charles Santiago should “stop playing politics”.

Najib is obviously too naive to understand that a “humanitarian” crisis of this scale needs the direct intervention of the Armed Forces chief.

Sleepy: The Rohingya issue is the new rallying call to the Muslims, presumably for GE14. To the Rohingya, welcome to the political chess game where you are seen as pawns and nothing more.

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