Hari Raya Aidiladha and the Meaning of Duty
A Hari Raya Haji reflection on korban, and on how Adat Perpatih holds rakyat, chiefs, and rulers to a standard of sacrifice and duty.
Today, Malaysia marks Hari Raya Aidiladha. At Masjid Diraja Tuanku Munawir, the heritage royal mosque in Seri Menanti, the Yang di-Pertuan Besar, Tuanku Muhriz ibni Almarhum Tuanku Munawir, and the Tunku Ampuan Besar, Tuanku Aishah Rohani, will lead the solat sunat and the korban, as they usually do.
Aidiladha is the festival of korban. At mosques across the state, animals are sacrificed and the meat shared out, much of it given to the poor. It is a fitting week to think about duty.
In Negeri Sembilan, duty does not stop at the palace. It is a principle that runs through the whole society, from the rakyat up to the ruler. One that Adat Perpatih holds everyone to.
The festival is a fitting moment to ask: what does duty demand, and of whom?
Who carries this duty?
Adat Perpatih spreads duty across a wide structure of customary office, one that reaches into every village in the state. Below the Yang di-Pertuan Besar sits the Undangs and a body of office-holders who carry the day-to-day weight of the custom.
In the four Luak headed by an Undang, a Buapak is chosen by unanimous vote of his anak buah, holds office for life, and can be removed by the same people who raised him if he fails them. The Lembaga who head the suku are chosen from below in the same way.
In daily life, this means a large body of men and women who carry real responsibility for marriage, inheritance, land, and the settling of disputes. A Buapak is on call for his perut for the rest of his life. The work is often rural and largely invisible to the state, and much of it rests on women, because the suku passes through the female line and the senior matrilineal figures, the Ibu Soko, hold authority the Undang cannot simply override.
The Undang sit within this same structure, though on different terms. They are not appointed by the ruler but raised by the Lembaga beneath them, and each carries the Adat life of an entire Luak, its disputes, its inheritances, and its ceremonies, alongside formal duties of state. That responsibility is genuine, lifelong and salaried, which distinguishes it from the office of the Buapak below. The distinction matters in any discussion of sacrifice, because the duty of an Undang is real and compensated, while the duty of the Buapak beneath him is just as real, yet carries no formal government salary.
What does Adat expect of a Ruler?
Adat Perpatih treats the office of a Ruler as an obligation, before a privilege. One of the oldest sayings about the Yang di-Pertuan Besar makes the point plainly:
Raja itu keadilan. (The Ruler is justice.)
The ruler’s role is to deliver keadilan, justice, on behalf of the people. In the customary view, authority is entrusted rather than owned, and office exists to carry obligation rather than to accumulate entitlement.
This standard applies not only to rulers but to all who hold office under Adat. The Undang are held to it as well: office carries obligations, and those who fail them must be answerable for it.
Important decisions are expected to be made in the open. The custom has a phrase for this:
Adat lalu di tengah terang (Adat passes in the light of day), and another for its opposite, hukuman di balik batang (judgement passed behind the tree-trunk), which it treats as a failure.
So Adat asks two things of any serious matter, weighing whether an office-holder has fallen short, and weighing just as firmly whether the process used to reach a decision was proper, meaning whether the grounds were stated, the affected party heard, and the right bodies consulted.
How has royal duty expressed itself in Negeri Sembilan?
In Negeri Sembilan, the royal family have concentrated their public work on a few fields: education, health, and charity.
Tuanku Muhriz has been Chancellor of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia since 2009. The UKM teaching hospital that carries his name, Hospital Canselor Tuanku Muhriz in Cheras, treats hundreds of thousands of patients each year, and the annual Tuanku Muhriz Chancellor Lecture has run for six years and counting.
Tuanku Aishah Rohani has been Chancellor of Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia since 2011, only the second person to hold the role, and her own university records that she visits welfare homes and hospitals rather than confining the office to ceremony. She is Royal Patron of the Negeri Sembilan Girl Guides Association, which marked its centenary in 2024, and her work has consistently centred on children, education, and care. The Sekolah Menengah Sains Tuanku Aishah Rohani in Seremban is an all-girls residential science school named in her honour, one of the country’s MARA-administered fully residential science schools, focused on STEM education for high-performing female students.
Tunku Ali Redhauddin, the elder son, co-founded Teach For Malaysia in 2010 and has chaired it since, and the organisation has placed several hundred fellows as full-time teachers in close to 900 government schools, reaching well over 330,000 schoolchildren. He is Pro-Chancellor of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia and chairs the board of trustees of Yayasan Munarah, the family foundation. As President of WWF-Malaysia for eight years, he oversaw conservation work that removed dozens of active wire snares from the Belum-Temengor forest. As chairman of Cancer Research Malaysia, he has supported the development of ARiCa, a genetic risk tool calibrated for Asian women that has helped guide more than 1,700 breast cancer patients through diagnosis and treatment.
Tunku Zain Al-’Abidin, the younger son, is Pro-Chancellor of both Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia and UCSI University and a Royal Fellow of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. He co-founded the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS), a think tank, in 2006, and through it has built institutions that serve children the system leaves out. In 2012, IDEAS opened the IDEAS Autism Centre in Rawang, Selangor, providing early intervention, therapy, and education to young children with autism from low-income families, and in February 2022 Tuanku Muhriz inaugurated a second centre in Nilai, Negeri Sembilan, alongside Tunku Ali, Tunku Zain, and Tunku Imran.
In September 2014, IDEAS opened IDEAS Academy, a school in Pudu, Kuala Lumpur, that began with 24 students. Its pupils are refugee, stateless, and undocumented children, the children Malaysian law does not allow into government schools. Since rebranded as IDEAS International, the school serves over 295 students across campuses in Kuala Lumpur and Penang, and it runs the country’s first Cambridge examination centre for refugee children, endorsed by the UNHCR.
Much of the family’s charitable work runs through Yayasan Munarah, the foundation established in January 2010, soon after Tuanku Muhriz came to the throne, and named after his late parents, Tuanku Munawir and Tunku Ampuan Durah. The foundation works across five pillars: education, poverty alleviation, healthcare and special needs, culture and the arts, and conservation. Tunku Ali chairs its board of trustees and Tunku Zain is a trustee. Its school-aid programme provides uniforms, shoes, and supplies to children from low-income Negeri Sembilan families at the start of the school year, with 276 pupils helped in January 2026 alone, and its scholarship support has carried students from low-income families through to university.
The royal family’s public work is quiet and consistent, attending state-level open houses across the religious calendar, community events, charity runs, and conducting grassroots fundraising for families in the bottom 40 percent of income earners. Most of these positions are unpaid or carry minimal compensation.
The two princes also hold careers in business and finance. The public roles described here sit alongside that paid work, making the time devoted to them a genuine sacrifice of time, energy, and opportunity. Korban means something precisely because the sacrifice is voluntary.
What this means
A discerning reader would note that a royal title carries real advantages, since many institutions seek a royal name for their boards. Invitations are abundant, and even an unpaid chancellorship is, in part, an honour conferred.
While the advantage of a royal position may offer the opportunity, it does not necessarily result in the commitment and sacrifice that duty asks for. A title may open the door to a board seat, yet it does not compel one to spend years building a refugee school, chairing a cancer research body, or dedicating decades to public education.
The royal family’s record invites the same question of every office Adat recognises. If the standard applies from the rakyat up to the ruler, then it applies no less to the Undang who hold the four Luak. Two of the chiefs came to office from careers in teaching and public administration. Adat's question reaches further than any salaried role: to what a person gives beyond what they are paid for, and at what cost to themselves. That is not a question this article sets out to answer. It is simply a question every citizen in Negeri Sembilan is entitled to ask, of every office-holder and of themselves alike.
Aidiladha does not celebrate power. It honours what a person is willing to give up for others. What Adat asks is whether privilege has been matched by a sacrifice worthy of it. In Negeri Sembilan, it applies that question across the board, to the ordinary people, the Buapak, the Undang and the Rulers alike.
That is why Adat insists:
Adat lalu di tengah terang. (Adat passes in the light of day.)
Read Next: The Royal Family of Negeri Sembilan: Service over Spectacle
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Sources:
Sambutan Hari Raya Aidiladha, ibadah korban kembali meriah, (Selangorkini), 10 July 2022
IDEAS Academy and the Cambridge refugee exam centre, (Bernama), 23 July 2023
Warm and Down-to-Earth Royal Family, (The Star), 14 January 2025
A second home of hope: Ronald McDonald House, (Sinar Daily), 3 November 2025
276 pelajar terima bantuan persekolahan daripada Yayasan Munarah, (Negeri Kita), 15 January 2026
Anak Nogori is independent commentary on the unfolding constitutional crisis in Negeri Sembilan, where centuries-old Adat Perpatih, royal succession law, and modern political manoeuvring are colliding in ways Malaysia has never seen before. If you find this useful, share it with someone who should be following this, or subscribe to receive the latest articles in your inbox.
