It was announced today that the Yang di-Pertuan Agong Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah conferred a total of 795 individuals with federal awards, honours and medals in conjunction with his official birthday.
Heading the list of recipients who will be bestowed the Panglima Mangku Negara (PMN), which carries the 'Tan Sri' title, are Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat, Chief Secretary to the Government Ismail Bakar and Malaysian Armed Forces chief Zulkifli Zainal Abidin.
Among the 15 individuals conferred with the Darjah Kebesaran Panglima Setia Mahkota (PSM), which also carries the 'Tan Sri' title, include Dewan Rakyat speaker Mohamad Ariff Md Yusof, Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak David Wong, Attorney-General Tommy Thomas, Inspector-General of Police Abdul Hamid Bador and other high ranking civil servants.
The absence of notable politicians from the honours list follows a trend that was seen in February, when 200 awards were given out in conjunction with Federal Territory Day, but with only one notable politician on the list – Hulu Langat MP Hasanuddin Mohd Yunus.
The overall number of awards had also come down from 370 in the corresponding year.
In the case of awards conferred on the Agong's birthday, there is no comparison to last year, as Sultan Muhammad V did not confer any titles.
The previous two years, however, saw a much larger number of awards being conferred.
In 2017, Sultan Muhammad V honoured 1,518 individuals, including prominent politicians such as Musa Aman, S Samy Vellu, S Vigneswaran, former MCA minister Michael Chen, then Tebrau MP Khoo Soo Seang and former MCA vice-president Woon See Chin.
In 2016, the number of awards conferred by then-Agong, the late Sultan Abdul Halim Mu'adzam Shah was 1,546. Politicians conferred with honours included Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, Noh Omar, S Nallakaruppan and Ezam Md Noor.
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