Speaking to FMT, Ramkarpal said he disagreed with the suggestion to restore the powers of the King and rulers to examine and approve bills.

“With respect, the monarchy ought to be apolitical and beyond the law-making process.”

The Bukit Gelugor MP said the current system, in which elected representatives were mandated to make laws, was reflective of a democracy as bills could be debated and put to a vote in Parliament.

“The people are involved, through their elected representatives, in this law-making process.”

Meanwhile, historian Khoo Kay Kim said the issue of restoring the powers of the King or rulers to examine and approve bills should be decided by the people.

“Since our independence, Malaysia has been a democracy.

“In a democracy, the people are represented by the people they elect, so it is the people who should go and tell their MPs what they should do.”

He pointed out that before independence, the Malay rulers were sovereign rulers and that each of the nine monarchies were “quite independent”.

However, after the country’s independence, the sovereign rulers became constitutional rulers.

“So the Constitution is the supreme law of the land. In such a situation, it is the people who have to decide what they want.”

Constitutional expert Abdul Aziz Bari said the King’s powers could be restored by either amending the law or asking the Federal Court, which is the nation’s constitutional court, to rule that the amendments were illegal.

“Somehow, the first manner is quite beyond us as no political party has two-thirds majority in Parliament.

“As for the second one, it is not easy to convince the judges, who often side with the government when it comes to legal questions that have high political content.”

On Saturday, it was reported that the Sultan of Johor, Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar, had called for an amendment to the Federal Constitution to restore the powers of the King or rulers to examine and approve bills.

He said this was necessary because it was not appropriate for these powers to be restricted or eliminated.

In May 1994, following a constitutional amendment, any law which has been passed by both the Dewan Rakyat and Dewan Negara will become law within 30 days, irrespective of whether the King has given his assent.