KUALA LUMPUR: The Council of Datuks is seeking stricter action against those using fake and unrecognised state awards, emblems, and honorifics after receiving more than 200 complaints over the past two years.
The Council’s president, Datuk Awalan Abdul Aziz (pic), said most of the complaints received concern individuals who misused titles to obtain business opportunities or claimed to have certain titles to gain community recognition or clout.
"Sometimes these individuals put certain titles on their name cards, and sometimes they receive titles from unrecognised parties in our country. They do that to convince the public that they are of higher esteem," he told Bernama on Saturday (Nov 16).
In this regard, he hoped that the government would immediately consider the paper proposing improvements and amendments to Act 787 (Offences relating to Awards Act 2017), which had already been sent to the Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Law and Institutional Reform) and the Attorney-General.
He said the proposal was to strengthen the law's effectiveness and enforcement, including increasing fines and punishments for certain offences under Act 787 (RM20,000 fine or three years jail) as a deterrent to the abuse of honorifics and titles (current enforcement varies across states as not all have enacted Act 787).
According to Awalan, the move would also allow prosecution cases to be brought to a higher court.
He said another suggestion was to ensure that Act 787 includes and covers all degrees of titles conferred by the “Heads of States” in Malaysia. This includes awards bestowed by the King, Malay Rulers as well as Yang di-Pertua Negeri.
Meanwhile, he said that the Council of Datuks has established a collaboration with the Institutional Chair of Malay Monarchs, Universiti Teknologi Mara, to strengthen and encourage academic activities and research related to the empowerment of the Institution of Malay Rulers. – Bernama
