Federalism Practice in Malaysia

FEDERALISM PRACTICE IN MALAYSIA

INTRODUCTION

Federal state was said to be the most famous choice after World War II which started the emergence of newly-constituted states. What is federal state and how it differs from the unitary ones? D. J. Elazar (A. Aziz Bari, 2003) has defined federalism as ;

“The mode of political organization that unites separate polities within an overarching political system so as to allow each to maintain its fundamental political integrity. Federal systems allow this by distributing powers between the central and constituent authorities in a way that preserves their existence and authority” (p. 126)

Meanwhile, William H. Riker (1964) explained the concept of federalism by giving its main characteristics which are (a) two levels of governments that rule the same land and the same people, (b) the existence of at least one area of action in which the government is autonomous which means division of powers and (c) the existence of guarantees of autonomy for each government within their own spheres.

According to K. C. Wheare, federal states are the states where the power of the government are divided between a government for the whole country and governments for parts of the country in such a way that each government is legally independent within its own sphere… neither is subordinate to the other :both are coordinate (A. Rashid Moten, 2009).

THE ORIGINS AND DEVELOPMENTS OF MALAYSIAN FEDERALISM

The earliest form of federalism in Malaysia was said to be the Negeri Sembilan’s loose arrangements of nine different localities under a figurehead, the Yamtuan Besar, in the 18th century. However, Abdul Aziz Bari said in his book that we should not overlook the fact that the office of Yamtuan was created as the unifying symbol in the regions war against external aggressions.

Then, came the Federated Malay States which were created by the British administration in 1895. It consists of four Malay states which are Perak, Selangor, Negeri Sembilan and Pahang. However, under British protection, it was also not a federation in true sense of the word as what existed was just a mechanism where policies where laid down at the center by the British officers and then implemented in the states through the state councils chaired by the respective sultans. That was despite the refusal of the other five Malay states (Kedah, Perlis, Kelantan, Terengganu, and Johor which were known as Unfederated Malay States) due to the reason of control by the British.

The creation of Malayan Union in 1946 was a move in a different reaction as it was an attempt to impose a unitary concept on the peninsula (Tanah Melayu). Malayan Union was important in understanding the evolution of Malaysian federation because some of the characteristics of the federation today have their basis