legal system of malaysia2

7/24/2019 Legal System of Malaysia2

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A brief description of the Legal System of Malaysia

Malaysia practices parliamentary democracy whilst at the same time maintains a system of

Constitutional Monarchy, with His Majesty the Yang di-Pertua Agong (King) as the Head of

State. At the state level, the Sultan or Yang di-Pertua Negeri (Governor) are the ConstitutionalRulers of their respective states.

The Constitution of Malaysia clearly divides the authority of the Federation into three

branches viz: legislative, judiciary and the executive. The division of authority occurs both at

the federal and state levels, in keeping with the concept of federalism which forms the basis of

the government administration.

Under the Federal Constitution the responsibility to conduct elections to the House Of

Representatives, the lower house of Parliament (Dewan Rakyat) and the State

Legislative Assemblies (Dewan Undangan Negeri)in Malaysia is vested with the Election

Commission. In the discharge of its responsibilities, the Election Commission, is being anindependent authority, is not subject in any way to direction as to how elections ought to be

conducted.

The establishment of the Election Commission, consisting of a Chairman, a Deputy Chairman

and five other Members, is laid down in Article 114 of the Federal Constitution. Members of

the Commission are appointed by His Majesty the Yang di-Pertua Agong after consultation

with the Conference of Rulers. In appointing the members, the Yang di-Pertua Agong shall

have regard to the importance ofsecuring an Election Commission which enjoys public

confidence.

The main functions of Election Commission are:

1) review and delimit Parliamentary and State Constituencies at intervals of not less

than eight years, following the date of completion of the last review;

2) carry out registration of electors and revision of electoral rolls; and

3) conduct general elections to the House of Representatives and State Legislative

Assemblies, and undertake by-elections arising out of casual vacancies.

The policy of the Election Commission is to safeguard, supervise and maintain the democraticprocess of the country through free and fair elections. It is the responsibility of the

Commission to ensure that the people are able to elect their representatives by direct votes at

any election.


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Elections to the legislatures

The country is divided into 222 federal constituencies and 576 state constituencies,each constituency returning on member.

Thus the Dewan Rakyat has 222 members (223 if a non-member is elected by the

House as Mr Speaker), Dewan Undangan Negerihave 576 members altogether.

Elections are conducted not by government but as stated above by an independent

Election Commission established by the constitution.

Who may vote? The answer is every citizen of any sex who:

(a) is 21 and above; and

(b)

is resident in a constituency or, if not so resident, is an absent voter

provided his name has been registered in the electoral roll for that constituency.

Who should be registered in these rolls are decided by the Commission and there are

rules and procedures to ensure that qualified citizens who wish to vote get on the register and

do so once only, that unqualified voters do not get on the register and the rolls are updated

periodically.

Absent voters are, for example, persons in government service such as diplomats and

members of the armed forces serving overseas and their families.

Challenge to the validity of election result

Accusations of election fraud and cheating have been rare. Any candidate or voter

who is dissatisfied with the announced result may challenge its validity. He does so not to the

Commission, still less to the legislature, but to the non-political and independent High Court.

A few elections have been voided by the Courts, in which case a fresh election is held.

General Elections

Whenever possible, the practice has been to hold federal and state general elections

simultaneously.

The constitution fixes the life of the federal and every state legislature as five years,

though it may be shorten by an earlier dissolution of Parliament.


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Basic Features of the Constitution

The following are the basic features:

1. it establishes Malaysia as a federation (Federal Constitution, Article 1);

2.

as a constitutional monarchy (Articles 39 & 40);

3. as a parliamentary democracy (Articles 44);

4. it provides for Islam to be the religion of the federation, but at the same time it

does not establish Malaysia as a theocratic country and expressly guarantees

freedom of religion (Article 3 (1);

5.

it provides for the supremacy of the constitution and the rule of law (Article 4 (1));and

6.

the constitution provides for a judiciary quite separate from and independent of

control of Parliament and the executive with exclusive jurisdiction to determine

disputes about constitutional and other legal rights and liabilities (Article 128).

The Executive

The Executive which, because of its control of Parliament, is the most powerful

branch in Malaysia.

The Executive consists of the apparatus of Government, principally:

(a)

the Cabinet;

(b) the public service;

(c) the police force; and

(d) the armed forces.

The Judiciary

The Judiciary, of which the distinguishing feature is that, unlike the Legislature and

the Executive which are intertwined and far from separate, the Judiciary on the contrary isentirely separate from and independent of either of the other two branches.


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Separation of powers

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Separation of powersa term coined by Frenchpolitical Enlightenmentthinker Baron de

Montesquieu, is a model for the governanceof democraticstates.

Under this model the stateis divided into branches, and each branch of the state has separate

and independent powers and areas of responsibility. The normal division of branches is into

the Executive, the Legislative, and the Judicial.

Proponents of separation of powers believe that it protects democracy and forestalls tyranny;

opponents of separation of powers, such as Professor Charles M. Hardin[3]have pointed out

that, regardless of whether it accomplishes this end, it also slows down the process ofgoverning, it promotes executive dictatorship and unaccountability, and it tends to

marginalize the legislature.

No democratic system exists with an absolute separation of powers or an absolutelack of

separation of powers. Nonetheless, some systems are clearly founded on the principle of

separation of powers, while others are clearly based on a mingling of powers.

Bibliography: The Federal Constitution

The Election Commision of Malaysia @ May 2007

Tun Mohamed Suffian bin Hashim, An Introduction to the Legal

System of Malaysia, Penebit Fajar Bakti Sdn Bhd, 1988

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Enlightenmenthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_de_Secondat%2C_baron_de_Montesquieuhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_de_Secondat%2C_baron_de_Montesquieuhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Governancehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_%28government%29http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legislaturehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judiciaryhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Separation_of_powers#_note-2#_note-2http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyranthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Separation_of_powers#_note-2#_note-2http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Separation_of_powers#_note-2#_note-2http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyranthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judiciaryhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legislaturehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_%28government%29http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Governancehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_de_Secondat%2C_baron_de_Montesquieuhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_de_Secondat%2C_baron_de_Montesquieuhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Enlightenmenthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/France

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