{"id":13191,"date":"2019-01-06T13:39:03","date_gmt":"2019-01-06T21:39:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=13191"},"modified":"2019-01-06T13:39:03","modified_gmt":"2019-01-06T21:39:03","slug":"malaysia-sultan-muhammad-v-steps-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=13191","title":{"rendered":"Malaysia Sultan Muhammad V steps down"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"u-underline\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/malaysia\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">Malaysia<\/a>\u2019s king has abdicated, royal officials have said, ending weeks of speculation about his future.<\/p>\n<p>The announcement on Sunday follows a leave of absence by the head of state and rumours he had married a former Russian beauty queen.<\/p>\n<p>Sultan Muhammad V\u2019s decision marks the first time a king has abdicated in the Muslim-majority country since\u00a0<a class=\"u-underline\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/malaysia\" data-link-name=\"auto-linked-tag\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\">Malaysia<\/a>\u00a0gained independence from Britain in 1957.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe National Palace informs that his majesty has resigned as the 15th king effective January 6,\u201d a statement from the palace said on Sunday.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"element element-rich-link element-rich-link--tag element--thumbnail element-rich-link--upgraded\" data-component=\"rich-link-tag\" data-link-name=\"rich-link-tag\">\n<div class=\"rich-link tone-news--item rich-link--pillar-news\">\n<div class=\"rich-link__container\">\n<div class=\"rich-link__read-more\">\n<div class=\"rich-link__read-more-text\">The palace did not give any reason for the 49-year-old royal\u2019s move.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>There had been a question mark over the reign of the king, who ascended to the throne in December 2016, since he took a leave of absence for medical treatment in November.<\/p>\n<p>Reports then circulated online that the king had married a former Miss Moscow in Russia, although royal officials in Malaysia have so far not commented on the rumours.<\/p>\n<p>Malaysia is a constitutional monarchy, with a unique arrangement where the throne changes hands every five years between the rulers of the nine Malaysian states headed by centuries-old Islamic royalty.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.straitstimes.com\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/article_pictrure_780x520_\/public\/articles\/2019\/01\/03\/yq-sultanm-03012019_2x.jpg?itok=eg9SlXMM&amp;timestamp=1546507454\" alt=\"Image result for malaysia king\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Malaysia\u2019s king has abdicated, royal officials&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13191"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13191\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13192,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13191\/revisions\/13192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}