By IANS,
Shah Alam (Malaysia) : Rear Admiral (retd) K. Thanabalasingam, a former chief of the Royal Malaysian Navy, is among the 25 awarded Datukship by the Sultan of Selangor province.
The ethnic Indian officer is to receive Thursday the traditional award, Seri Paduka Mahkota Selangor (S.P.M.S), akin to British knighthood, from Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah in conjunction with the latter’s 63rd birthday, The New Straits Times said.
No politician figures in the list of new awardees that has officials, educationists and entrepreneurs.
The number of awardees too has come down from 34 last year.
The Sultan of Malacca last week conferred Datukship on Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan, the first to a foreign actor.
The royal sultans, who are constitutional heads, confer the traditional awards on their birthdays.