Malaysia’s Sultans Return to Power

The long-running political crisis in Malaysia’s Selangor state has shone a spotlight on what was thought to be an unlikely political phenomenon, the resurgence in power of the country’s nine sultans.

In particular, two of the sultans have refused to bend to parliamentary power. They are Sultan Sarafuddin Idris Shah of Selangor and Tunku Ismail Idris of J…