Malaysia’s Figurehead Monarch Dies at 75

The figurehead king, Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah, died today after complications from heart surgery, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said.

The popular 75-year-old king, the country’s 11th constitutional monarch since independence from Britain in 1957, had undergone surgery in Singapore two months ago to have a pacemaker implanted. His condition deteriorated following the operation, and he had been put on respiratory and kidney support machines.

Salahuddin was one of nine traditional rulers who take turns in the figurehead role.

He was admitted to the hospital Sunday. Concern over his condition mounted Tuesday, when he was visited by family members including his fourth wife, Queen Siti Aishah, who was 19 when he married her in 1990.

Malaysia’s hereditary rulers take turns every five years at being king under Malaysia’s unique rotating monarchy, which has mainly symbolic powers.

The council of rulers will now elect a successor to the monarch, during whose illness Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin of Terengganu was deputized.

Mahathir, the prime minister, curtailed the constitutional powers of the rulers during the early years of his own 20-year rule.

Mahathir and Salahuddin were the same age, and both were active in the movement for independence from British colonial rule. They had a good working relationship despite some clashes in the early 1980s.

The death of a Malaysian ruler is marked by a national day of mourning.

Expectations that financial markets could be closed subdued trading in shares, with speculators closing out positions and state-run pension funds reducing activity.