In a statement issued by the Selangor palace today, the cancellation of the awards will be gazetted according to due procedure.
Selangor Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah has consented to Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and his wife Tun Dr Siti Hasmah’s decision to return the awards they had previously received from the Selangor palace.
The Selangor palace confirmed that the couple has returned the awards conferred to them by the Sultan.
“It is informed that His Royal Highness Sultan Selangor has consented to the return of medals of honours and titles by Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Tun Dr Siti Hasmah without any objection,” the short statement read.
The rewards that Mahathir obtained in 1978 and 2003 respectively were returned on Dec 7 to a senior officer of the palace. Dr Siti Hasmah, who also had two awards from the Selangor Sultan, subsequently followed suit.
His decision to return the awards came shortly after the ruler publicly expressed his dissatisfaction with Mahathir over the latter’s comments about Bugis people being “pirates”.
The former prime minister has repeatedly stressed that his remarks were directed at Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak alone, but the statement has since drawn fire from the Bugis community, several NGOs, and also the Johor Sultan.