Sultan Iskandar of Johor  

From Johor Bahru Directory

Jump to: search

Sultan Iskandar was the 24th Sultan of Johor and the 4th Sultan of Modern Johor, reigning for 29 years from 1981 to 2010.

Sultan Iskandar, 24th Sultan of Johor.

Almarhum Sultan Mahmud Iskandar Al-Haj ibni Ismail Al-Khalidi (8 April 1932 – 22 January 2010) was the:

As was the case with Sultan Ibrahim, his grandfather, Sultan Iskandar's independent mindset often resulted in strained relations with the Federal Government, particularly during his reign as the Yang di-Pertuan Agong.[1] Critics also argued that Sultan Iskandar was a man of turbulent temper.[2][3]


2.   Early life: Born in Istana Semayam, Johor Bahru, Tunku Mahmud was the 3rd son of Sultan Ismail and Sultanah Ungku Tun Aminah. He had two elder brothers, both of whom died in infancy. Tunku Mahmud (fondly known as "Moody" within private circles) received his early education in Ngee Heng Primary School and English College (now Maktab Sultan Abu Bakar) in Johor Bahru.

After furthering his studies in Australia, Tunku Mahmud headed for the United Kingdom in 1953, where he enrolled into the Upper Chine School. It was while in the United Kingdom that he met his first wife, Josephine Ruby Trevorrow, an English woman. They married in 1956 and had 4 children. The marriage, however, ended in divorce, 6 years later, in 1962. A year earlier in 1961, Tunku Mahmud had married Tengku Zanariah of the Kelantan royal family. They had 6 children. Of Tunku Mahumud's 10 children, two are sons, namely Tunku Ibrahim Ismail by his first wife, Josephine Ruby Trevorrow, and Tunku Abdul Majid Idris by his second wife.


3.   As Tunku Mahkota: Tunku Mahmud was appointed Tunku Mahkota of Johor in May 1959, then age 27. However, he was removed from the position by his father, after he allegedly incarcerated a policeman.[4] In 1966, then age 34, Tunku Mahmud was appointed Raja Muda, putting him second in line to the throne. He was again charged in 1972 for assaulting 2 men with a mace for overtaking his car and was sentenced to a 6-month imprisonment the following year.[5][6] In 1978, Tunku Mahmud was again charged, this time for manslaughter,[7] after shooting a man near his private helicopter whom he took to be a smuggler. His father came to his rescue and granted him an official pardon.[8][9][10]


4.   As Sultan of Johor: In April 1981, then age 49, Tunku Mahmud was said to have been reappointed as the Tunku Mahkota, shortly before his father's death.[11] Some eyewitnesses, however, challenged the legitimacy of his reappointment, arguing that they had witnessed that Sultan Ismail had already lapsed into coma at the time of his alleged reappointment.[12] Nevertheless, Tunku Mahmud was sworn in as the 24th Sultan of Johor on 11 May. From then on, he largely discontinued the use of his first name, "Mahmud".


5.   As the Yang di-Pertuan Agong: Shortly before his election as the Yang-Di Pertuan Agong in 1983, a spate of reports circulated within political circles, alleging that Sultan Iskandar intended to stage a coup d'état by launching a state of emergency to overthrow the government. He was reportedly fostering close relations with several key military personnel, including the Army Chief himself. The Federal Government promptly responded by curbing constitutional loopholes and reducing the power of royal veto in passing legislation, culminating in a constitutional crisis late that year.

Sultan Iskandar, then age 52, was elected the 8th Yang di-Pertuan Agong on 9 February 1984 and reigned from 26 April 1984 - 25 April 1989. In his inaugural speech, he publicly voiced support for the revised constitution, and pledged to act in accordance with the Prime Minister's advice. After his inauguration, he donated his Agong's salary to various scholarship boards that were open to Malaysians of all races.[13]

In 1987, while still the Agong, Sultan Iskandar was accused of causing the death of a golf caddy by assault in Cameron Highlands, following an incident in which the golf caddy laughed when he missed a hole. Due to immunity accorded to the rulers, however, he could not be prosecuted, and the matter was let off without much public attention. Distressed by what he saw, Adam, the brother of the caddy, who also suffered injuries from the incident, subsequently ran amok in Kuala Lumpur and had to be quarantined in a mental hospital.[14][15]


6.   Sacking of Tun Salleh Abas: In his capacity as the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, Sultan Iskandar sacked Tun Salleh Abas, the Lord President of the Federal Court, in what led to the 1988 Constitutional Crisis. Observers suggested a remarkably warm relationship between him and the then Prime Minister, Dr. Mahathir, both of whom shared a common resentment against Salleh Abas. In 1973, the then Tunku Iskandar had been convicted of assault and was sentenced to 6 months of imprisonment. As public prosecutor, Salleh had appealed to the then Chief Justice, Raja Azlan Shah (now the Sultan of Perak), for handing down a heavier sentence for Tunku Iskandar, which naturally earned his wrath.[16][17][18] The sacking of the Lord President, however, was not without controversy, given the alleged manner in which the Agong and Prime Minister had handled the matter.


7.   The Gomez Incident: On 10 July 1992, Tunku Abdul Majid Idris assaulted the Perak goalkeeper, Mohamed Jaafar Mohamed Vello, after the Perak team won the hockey championship match by a penalty stroke.[19] The incident resulted in the Malaysian Hockey Federation slapping him with a ban of 5 years from participating in any future national tournaments. Sultan Iskandar responded to the ban by putting pressure on the state authorities to enforce a boycott of the Johor hockey teams from all national tournaments. In November that year, Douglas Gomez, a coach for the Maktab Sultan Abu Bakar field hockey team, expressed his displeasure of being called to withdraw from a semi-final national hockey match by the Director of the Johor Education Department. The incident attracted the attention of the Sultan, who personally summoned Gomez to his palace, Istana Bukit Serene. There, Gomez was promptly reprimanded and assaulted by the Sultan himself.[20] The incident provoked a nationwide moral outrage and ultimately resulted in constitutional amendments, allowing members of the royalty to be prosecuted for criminal wrongdoings.


8.   Death: In 2000, Sultan Iskandar, then age 68, underwent a coronary bypass operation in the United States. After that, he slowed down somewhat in his pace of life and took to playing golf only on an occasional basis. He was briefly admitted to a local hospital in 2008, after suffering a bout of bronchitis. On 22 January 2010, then age 77, Sultan Iskandar was admitted to the Puteri Specialist Hospital and passed away later that day at 7.15 p.m. He was buried in the Mahmoodiah Royal Mausoleum the following day.

See also:

Retrieved from "http://jbdirectory.com/Sultan_Iskandar_of_Johor"
(Redirected from Sultan Iskandar)