THE STAR
MALACCA: Malacca police ambushed a “royal” banquet hosted by a Naning chieftain at a leading hotel here and arrested 21 people including the 62-year-old self-proclaimed chieftain.
The dinner was held on Wednesday night following an investiture ceremony where 47 individuals, including housewives, were “conferred” various honorary “Datukship” titles at a house in Taman Setiawan in Alor Gajah in the morning.
Those who were “conferred” the awards included businessmen, self-employed and pensioners aged between 20 and 60.
Malacca police chief Deputy Comm Datuk Ramli Din said the 11.30pm raid was carried out following a police report lodged against the investiture ceremony.
“All those arrested were released after their statements were recorded at Simpang Ampat police station to facilitate investigation under Section 149 of the Penal Code,” he said here yesterday.
Those found guilty under the Act may face a jail term of up to two years or fine or both.
DCP Ramli said the self-proclaimed chieftain was also being probed under Section 419 of the Penal Code for cheating by impersonation.
He said police also confiscated several paraphernalia relating to the investiture ceremony including title awards, letters, “Naning” insignias, medals, badges and songkok.
“We are in the midst of arresting more individuals over the next few days to deepen our probe into the conferment of the unrecognised titles,” he said.
The issue of unauthorised conferment of titles has been raised several times by the state government since 2013.
In 2014, the state Government had set-up a special committee to oversee the activities of awarding unrecognised honorary titles by Naning chieftains.
The committee headed by State Secretary Datuk Naim Abu Bakar was tasked with verifying whether any civil servant, village chairman or officials of Government linked agencies were recipients of the bogus titles.
Chief Minister Datuk Seri Idris Haron had said honorary titles other than those from the Malacca Governor were considered illegitimate and recipients of such fictitious awards would be also barred by the state government from receiving any bona fide titles in the future.
The committee was established after a slew of investiture ceremonies were held despite state government’s strict warning against fake royalties.
