Monday June 8th 2020 has been declared a public holiday in Malaysia for the official birthday of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah.
In a statement, the Human Resources Ministry said the declaration is made under Section 8 of the Holidays Act 1951 and gazetted on March 18th.
“This public holiday is listed under gazetted compulsory public holidays for employees under Section 60D (1)(a)(ii) of the Employment Act 1955 (Act 265).
“It cannot be replaced with another day and employees who are instructed to work on this date will have to be paid a public holiday rate in line with provisions under Act 265,” the statement added.
The Malaysian King is one of the few elected monarchs in the world. On January 24th 2019, the Conference of Rulers elected Sultan Abdullah as the sixteenth Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia to replace Sultan Muhammad V of Kelantan who had abdicated weeks earlier due to ill health. Sultan Abdullah’s birthday is July 30th.