Andrew J. Harding - 50 Years of Malaysia. Federalism Revisited

2014 Marshall Cavendish International (Asia) Private Limited

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National Library Board, Singapore Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

50 years of Malaysia : federalism revisited / edited by Andrew J. Harding & James Chin. Singapore : Marshall Cavendish Editions, 2014

pages cm

ISBN : 978-981-4561-24-2 (paperback)

eISBN: 978 981 4561 96 9

1. Federal government Malaysia. 2. Central-local government relations Malaysia. 3. Malaysia Politics and government History. I. Harding, Andrew, 1950-, editor. II. Chin, Ung-Ho, 1967-, editor.

JQ1062

320.4595 dc23 OCN883822061

Printed in Malaysia by Vivar Printing Sdn. Bhd.

Fifty Years of Malaysia: Reflections and Unanswered Questions
(by Andrew Harding and James Chin)

Interview with Tan Sri Simon Sipaun
(by Bridget Welsh)

Interview with Dato Dr Peter Mooney
(by Bridget Welsh)

Federating for Survival: The Case of Singapore
(by Kevin Y.L. Tan)

Federal-East Malaysia Relations: Primus-Inter-Pares?
(by James Chin)

Protection of the Indigenous Peoples of Sabah and Sarawak under Malaysias Federal System
(by Andrew Harding)

Confusion, Coercion and Compromise in Malaysian Federalism
(by Khairil Azmin Mokhtar)

Fifty Years of Water Resources Management i n Malaysian Federalism: A Way Forward
(by Rasyikah Md Khalid, Faridah Jalil and Mazlin Bin Mokhtar)

This book started off as a one-day workshop, Fifty years of Malaysia: Federalism Revisited, hosted by the Centre for Asian Legal Studies (CALS), Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore, on 27 September, 2013. Participants included Prof Andrew J Harding, Prof James Chin, Mr Ang Hean Leng, Dr Denison Jayasooria, Dr Regina Lim, Assoc Prof Khairil Azmin Mokhtar, Tan Sri Datuk Simon Sipaun, Dr Wong Chin Huat, Asst Prof Michael Dowdle, Asst Prof Jaclyn Neo, Assoc Prof Victor Ramraj, Prof Kevin Tan, Assoc Prof Bridget Welsh, Mr Ranen Bhattacharyya, Dr Jason Bonin, Prof Irene Calboli, Asst Prof Tracey Chan, Mr Chan Choon Ann, Ms Evelyn Chua, Dr Melissa Crouch, Ms Sumithra Dhanarajan, Mr Mike Grainger, Mr Ryan Hardin, Ms Hu Xianyuan, Dr Victor Kattan, Ms Ma Yulin, Ms Gabriela Marti, Mr Diego G Meja-Lemos, Dr Thi Hoang Minh, Mr Fairul Reeza Mohd Rosli, Ms Lina Soo, Mr Teo Lee Ken, and Dean V.T. Thamilmaran.

The editors then selected papers from the workshop for this collection and authors were asked to revise their papers for publication. At this stage it was felt that a paper on federal-state issues post 2008 was needed and Rasyikah Md Khalid, Faridah Jalil and Mazlin Bin Mokhtar were asked to contribute their paper on the Selangor water issue, which was delivered at a Young Scholars Workshop at NUS in December 2013. We also felt that we should have an interview section and Assoc Prof Bridget Welsh kindly volunteered to interview Tan Sri Simon Sipaun and Dato Dr Peter Mooney.

We would like to record our appreciation to all those who took part in the workshop and the support staff, especially CALS Manager Ms Regana Mydin, who did a wonderful job in putting it all together. We would also especially like to thank Bridget Welsh who did the interviews in a very short time frame.

James Chin would like to thank the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) and Monash University for institutional support during the project. This book project was especially memorable given that his third daughter, Catrina, was born the same week the manuscript was handed to the publisher!

The editors and publisher regret that in the first printing of this book the interview with Dato Dr Peter Mooney appeared with some errors. In particular the interview identified Dato Dr Peter Mooney incorrectly as Tan Sri Sir Peter Mooney. These errors have been corrected in this ebook edition.

ANDREW HARDING (Singapore)

JAMES CHIN (Kuala Lumpur)

July 2014

These essays are the product of a workshop discussion at the National University of Singapore in September 2013, organised by the Centre for Asian Legal Studies. The purpose of this gathering was to revisit the creation of the Malaysian Federation and how it has fared over the last fifty years from the different disciplinary perspectives of a group of scholars in law and political science. This chapter frames and reflects on federalism and its evolving nature in Malaysia after fifty years, and provides an introduction to the following chapters.

It was noticeable, to begin with, that when the fiftieth anniversary of the Malaysian Federation occurred on 19 September 2013, many people were surprised at the muted nature of what should (one would have thought) have been a significant national anniversary, comparable with the fiftieth anniversary of independence which was celebrated on 31 August 2007. There was, however, no real sense of occasion, especially in West Malaysia.

Let us recall that the Federation of Malaysia was formed on 16 September 1963; and yet the anniversary of Malaysias National Day (now usually referred to as Merdeka Day) is celebrated on 31 August, commemorating the day in 1957 when the Federation of Malaya gained independence. As Tan Sri Simon Sipaun reminded us, it was not until 2003 that the Government of Malaysia proclaimed Malaysia Day to be 16 September. Yet, when the fiftieth anniversary of Merdeka (independence) was celebrated on 31 August 2007, the celebrations were (we suggest illogically) expressly related to the formation of Malaysia as a nation.

The confusion deepens when one looks at the Constitution. Article 1(1) clarifies that The Federation shall be known, in Malay and in English, by the name Malaysia. Yet Article 160 of the Constitution, providing on the one hand that Merdeka Day refers to 31 August 1957, also on the other hand defines the Federation as the federation established under the Federation of Malaya Agreement 1957, not the Malaysia Agreement 1963. So it seems that after fifty years, or fifty-seven according to ones calculation, Malaysia still has an existential problem of some kind. The legal position can probably be best expressed by saying that the Federation referred to repeatedly in the Constitution is the federation established by the 1957 Agreement as modified by the 1963 Agreement, and whose powers and structure are defined extensively in the Constitution.