Validity of honorific titles can be verified online

KUALA LUMPUR: The public can refer to the website of the Bahagian Istiadat under the Prime Minister's Department at www.istiadat.gov.my to check whether an honorific title used by an individual is valid and recognised by the government.

Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Liew Vui Keong said the website had a complete and updated list of the recipients of honorific titles and medals, whether conferred by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong or came from recognised sources.

He was replying to Senator Datuk Syed Ibrahim Kader who had asked the prime minister to state the efforts taken to address the problem of misuse of honorific titles like Datuk and Datuk Seri in cases where their validity were doubted, in the Dewan Negara today.

Liew said that according to the current policy and regulation, only the honorific titles conferred by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, sultans, rulers and Yang di-Pertua Negeri were recognised by the government.

"For honorific titles from foreign countries, only those conferred by the heads of state or government from sovereign countries are recognised.

"In this respect, titles given by organisations, associations, and local or foreign institutions with no political authority and they only exist as cultural centres are not included in the category of recognised honorific titles."

Liew said that to ensure that honorific titles were tightly controlled at the federal level, the Ceremonial Division and International Conference Secretariat at the Prime Minister's Department kept a complete and updated record of all recipients of the federal awards.

He said this was to avoid confusion and doubts in respect of the list of recipients.

Liew said the new list of award recipients would only be displayed online one day after the investiture ceremony.