Article 153 of the Federal Constitution - be true

13Friday

Subject: Article 153 of the Federal Constitution - Read and Know your constitution


Fifty years after Merdeka, and racial tension has never been worse. This article was originally written in December 2004! It is quite long, but read it and you will find out that there is no such thing as Malay special rights and privileges; Article 153 merely states 'the special position of the Malays'.
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Saturday, December 04, 2004
Unveiling the truth of Malay 'Special Rights' ...
The recurring issue of Malay 'special rights' was again brought into focus when Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang moved to reprimand Higher Education Minister Shaffie Salleh in Parliament on Dec 1st for the latter's recent racial utterances.
In the recently concluded UMNO annual assembly, Shaffie vowed to never admit any non-Malay students to the public funded Universiti Institute Teknologi Mara (UiTM), and he also undertook to ensure that in spite of the current meritocracy system of university intake, Malay students would always exceed 55%, which was the percentage stipulated under the previous quota system.
Proposing the motion, Kit Siang described these policy statements as shocking and extremist. He exerted that apart from damaging Malaysia's international reputation, they undermined national unity and integration and lowered competitiveness all round.
Opposing the motion, MP Ahmad Shabery Cheek (UMNO, Kemaman) accused Kit Siang of stirring up racial issues and challenging Malay 'special rights', for which Ahmad quoted Article 153 of the Federal Constitution which prescribed these rights.
Kit Siang denied these accusations and asked the newly appointed Speaker
Ramli Ngah Talib for a ruling as to whether the motion was deemed seditious. The Speaker remained silent. As expected, the motion was eventually rejected in view of ruling party BN's overwhelming majority.
Forty seven years after Independence, racial issues continued to monopolisenational politics, and championing Malay rights remains the single dominant ideology of the only ruling power that this independent nation has known, UMNO. Thousands of speeches have been made championing this Malay cause, using various terminologies such as Malay 'special rights', Malay 'special privileges' or simply Malay 'rights', often invoking the nation's Constitution as the legal back-up. But, of the thousands of politicians who have used these terminologies, how many have read through the Constitution to find out what these 'rights' really are? Very few, perhaps!
Our Constitution is printed in a small booklet that can be bought for about RM10 in the book shops. Buy one copy and read through to find out what it says about these 'rights'. After all, these issues have been the hottest favourites of our politicians ever since our Independence. Aren't you curious to find out?
If you have read through the Constitution to look for an answer to these Malay 'rights', perhaps the first thing that has struck you is that, familiar terminologies such as Malay 'special rights', Malay 'special privileges' or Malay 'rights' are no where to be found in the Constitution. Instead, we only find the term 'the special position of the Malays', which appears twice, in Clause (1) and Clause (2) of Article 153, which is titled 'Reservation of quotas in respect of services, permits, etc, for Malays and natives of any of the States of Sabah and Sarawak'.

(The natives of Sabah and Sarawak were only incorporated into the Constitution upon the formation of Malaysia in 1963, during which Sabah , Sarawak and Singapore were merged with Malaya to form Malaysia . In this article, the words 'the natives of Sabah and Sarawak' will not be repeated after the word 'Malay' when I quote from the Constitution, for abbreviation purpose).
MP Ahmad Shabery Cheek has of course correctly pinpointed Article 153 as that part of the Constitution upon which Malay 'rights' were founded. But has he read and understood the full meaning of Article 153?
Anyone who has read through Article 153 might be surprised to discover that the provisions favouring Malays are in fact quite moderate, and certainly no way as stretched out in intensity and scope as our politicians would want us to believe. Similarly, those provisions protecting the non-Malays as a counter-balance to the special position of the Malays under this Article are also surprisingly quite well conceived and fair. In fact, when read in conjunction with Article 8 (Equality) and Article 136 (Impartial treatment of Federal employees), Article 153 cannot be construed as having significantly violated the egalitarian principles of our Constitution, contrary to common perception.
Since the egalitarian nature of our Constitution is largely intact, in spite of the presence of Article 153, then why should it have acquired such an adverse reputation as the legal root of all kinds of racial inequalities in this country?
Answer: the fault is not with our Constitution, but with our politicians twisting, misinterpreting and abusing it. It is perhaps high time we get to the bottom of Article 153.
Clause (1) of Article 153 states: 'It shall be the responsibility of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to safeguard the special position of the Malays and the legitimate interests of other communities in accordance with the provisions of this Article'.
So, the first understanding that we must have on Article 153 is that it is meant to protect the interests of not only the Malays, but also those of the non-Malays.
Next, note the deliberate use of the words 'safeguard' and 'special position' (instead of 'special rights' or 'special privileges'). The choice of these words must be understood in the historical context of the drafting of this Constitution half a century ago when Malays were economically and educationally backward in relation to other races. It was thought fit and proper then that there must be 'safeguards' to protect the Malays from being swarmed over by other races. Hence, the creation of the 'special position' of the Malays, which was obviously intended for defensive purpose: to protect for survival. The impeccable avoidance of using words like 'rights' and 'privileges', and the choice of the word 'safeguard' were clearly calculated to reflect its defensive nature. Under that historical context, the provision of the special position of the Malays in the Constitution certainly could not be interpreted to mean the endowment of racial privileges to create a privileged class of citizenship.
Clause (2) says that the Yang di-Pertuan Agong shall safeguard the special position of the Malays by reserving positions 'of such proportion as he may deem reasonable' in a) the public service b) educational facilities and c) business licenses.
Clauses (3) & (6) say that the Yang di-Pertuan Agong may, for purpose of fulfilling Clause (2), give general directions to the relevant authorities, which shall then duly comply.