Malaysia, the only country where kings rotate every five years, has a new head of state since last week.
The Sultan of Johor, Ibrahim Iskandar, 65, has ascended the throne four decades after his father, the late Sultan Mahmud Iskandar, did so.
The new monarch, who will hold office until 2029, is one of the richest sovereigns on the planet, with a personal fortune that exceeds 750 million euros, according to
Forbes
magazine .
The billionaire is known for his eccentricities, but also for his frankness and his desire to meddle in politics.
Although traditionally the role of the Malay kings has been merely protocol, Ibrahim Iskandar has already announced that he does not intend to “waste” this five years being “a puppet”, and has promised that he will focus on “fighting corruption” and “reinforcing unity”. national".
King Ibrahim, the 17th
Agong
(meaning “supreme ruler”) of Malaysia since independence from the United Kingdom in 1957, is the second governor of the southern state of Johor to ascend to the throne, after his father did so between 1984 and 1989. Of Malay-British descent, he is the first boy of the marriage between Sultan Mahmud Iskandar and Josephine Trevorrow, a native of Cornwall, who had a total of four children.
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Born on November 22, 1958, Ibrahim received complete military training in his country and in the United States during his adolescence.
Later, he completed his studies at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in Boston (USA), where he specialized in Southeast Asian Strategic Studies and International Maritime Law. In 1982 he married Raja Zarith Sofiah, a member of the royal family. of the Malaysian state of Perak.
The new queen, a graduate of the University of Oxford, speaks five languages, writes children's stories and is recognized for being involved in different social causes.
The kings have five sons and one daughter, born between 1984 and 2001. Their eldest son, Crown Prince Ismail, has assumed the regency of Johor while his father reigns in the country.
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Malaysia is a confederation of 13 States and three federal territories that has adopted a formula unique in the world: an elective and rotating constitutional monarchy.
Nine of the states are led by ethnic Malay rulers who lead their region for life and whose lineage dates back to the Malay sultanates of the 15th century.
Under the Constitution, these nine dynastic lineages share the throne, and the head of state is transferred after a non-extendable period of five years.
That is, the crown is not transmitted by bloodline after the death or abdication of the king, but falls on the leader of another of the royal families.
Although the rotation follows an established order, the future regent requires the majority approval of the nine sultans in a secret vote.
Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar received that green light last October.
The new monarch is an unusual and not at all discreet man, who frequently shares his sumptuous life on his Instagram account, where he has almost a million followers.
Passionate about luxury vehicles, he drives a yellow Ferrari Testarossa and a Harley-Davidson, and it is known that, among his whims, there is a collection of 300 high-end cars, among which stands out one that Adolf Hitler gave to the great-grandfather of him.
He also owns a fleet of private jets, including at least three Gulfstreams and a gold and blue Boeing 737, in which he flew to Kuala Lumpur for his proclamation.
In his palace, he has recreated a cave inspired by the
Flintstones
cartoon and a museum honoring his favorite childhood series.
According to the Singaporean newspaper
Straight Times
, the two-story building, with 15 rooms and two presidential
suites
, also houses 60,000 original Marvel comics.
The Sultan of Johor, Ibrahim Iskandar, during his swearing-in ceremony as the 17th King of Malaysia at the national palace in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on January 31, 2024.CHINE NOUVELLE/SIPA (CHINE NOUVELLE/SIPA / Cordon Press )
But his heritage goes much further.
As the laws of the State of Johor do not prohibit royalty from engaging in business activities, their portfolio of business interests is diverse, from mining exploitation to palm oil production, to football teams.
Bloomberg
estimates that his family's assets exceed 5.3 billion euros, and that his investments in public companies exceed 97 million euros and are close to 450 million euros in private companies (he has, for example, a 25% stake). at U Mobile, one of the largest phone providers in Malaysia).
According to
Bloomberg
research , his investment portfolio in the real estate sector is almost €1 billion and he owns land in central Singapore valued at €3.7 billion.
Furthermore, the Johor Sultanate is the only one allowed to maintain its own private army.
Even so, King Ibrahim and his family enjoy high popularity in their home state, the second most populated and one of the most thriving in the entire nation.
He is known for his religious moderation – he has shown his support for other religions by attending Christmas and Diwali celebrations – and for taking a tough stance against conservatism and social discrimination.
He became an open critic of the Malaysian Islamic Party, which won the largest number of seats in the 2022 elections, and which advocates policies such as a ban on alcohol, the imposition of
sharia
law and a dress code for women.
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During his swearing-in on January 31, he promised to “firmly defend a just administration and peace in the country.”
But the king's power in this nation of 31 million people is mainly symbolic.
In addition to being the high command of the Armed Forces, he represents the unity of the federation, where around 70% of the population is Malay, 22.6% is Chinese and 6.6% is Indian.
His figure is especially prestigious among the Malay and Muslim majority, since the sultans have among their prerogatives to act as custodians of the local branch of Islam.
The new monarch, who is characterized by speaking without mincing words, has slipped in several interviews that he will try to exercise a more influential position than his predecessors.
Well connected with Singapore's upper echelons and with Chinese businessmen, on an economic level, he aspires to resume the project of a high-speed train linking Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.
In the political sphere, his main priority is to combat corruption, for which he has proposed that the Anti-Corruption Commission and Petronas (the state oil and gas corporation, the cornerstone of the country's economy) report directly to him instead of to do so to Parliament, which he considers infested with dishonest officials.
Although he claims that he has a good relationship with Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, he has emphasized that during his reign the interest of the population will take precedence over that of politicians, and he has come to present himself to the press as “a man from town".
“There are 222 of you in Parliament, there are more than 30 million outside.
“I am not with you, I am with them,” he told
Straight Times
.