Federal Constitution - Most Powerful Law in Malaysia

Wong Sin Rou (0332913)

  Federal Constitution, the supreme law of Malaysia which is the most powerful law in Malaysia. It was drafted by the Reid Commission headed by Lord William Reid and established on 31st August 1957. Federal Constitution is important to Malaysia due to various reasons. The previous president of Malaysian Bar, Christopher Leong had said that ‘The Federal Constitution is important because it determines what kind of country we live in as Malaysia is a multi-religion and multiracial country.’ It shows that Federal Constitution helps to support the fairness of each races that live in Malaysia. Federal Constitution of Malaysia served to protect the citizen and ensures the government work in a proper way. The Federal Constitution not only provides powers to the ruling body, but also the citizens through the freedom of rights such as freedom of assemble and freedom of speech and expression.

  In Federal Constitution of Malaysia, article 10 had clearly stated three freedoms given to Malaysia citizen. Firstly, every citizen has the freedom of speech and expression. Citizens have the right to voice their opinion or express their feelings publicly without governmental intervention. Thus, Malaysian citizen have the right to share their opinions via various medium. Second, all citizens have the freedom to assemble peaceably and without arms. Citizens are allowed to assemble peacefully for a purpose without making a rebellion. Third, all citizens have the freedom to form associations. Citizens are given the freedom to form societies, clubs, and alliance without government interference. In my opinion, I think that freedom of speech and expression, freedom of assemble and freedom to form associations has a good impact towards the country. By having the freedom of speech, citizens can express their views and opinions about current trends, government policies and others issues. The freedom of assemble also provides citizens the chance against the policy they are not satisfy with or to appeal their claims by assemble peacefully. The freedom to form associations give the opportunities to citizen to form a group of people together that have the same claim. Through these rights, citizens have a channel to express their opinion to the government and improve the relationship between the government and citizen. I think that these rights of freedoms help Malaysia to become a more harmonious country.

  Although the rights of freedom are clearly stated in the article 10, there are still some restrictions imposed by Parliament to these rights. Universities and University Colleges Act 1971 is one of the restriction to the freedom of speech and expression. Under this clause, education staff are not allowed to make any public statements about politics. Other than that, Sedition Act 1948 also act as a restriction to the freedom of speech and expression. Under this clause, any act, speech or expression will be considered as seditious if it causes contempt to the government or any ruler of the country or trigger the conflict between races of the Malaysian citizen. Therefore, Malaysian citizens do not have the freedom to express the dissatisfaction to the action of the government. Furthermore, Printing Presses and Publications Act, 1984 also act as a restriction to the citizen to express their words through media. This Act includes kinds of controls on the publication of magazines and newspapers. Every Malaysia printing companies must have printing license valid for twelve months or lesser and it can be revoked at any time by the Ministry. Hence, the publications or article on the magazines and newspapers are controlled.