Even before the guests and students started to stream in, the President of the Malaysian Bar, Ragunath Kesavan, had already seated himself at the front row and was receiving a briefing from the ConstiLC’s dedicated Executive Officer, Lim Ka Ea. The President’s presence clearly meant that the MyConstitution Campaign or Kempen PerlembagaanKu is being taken seriously.
Some early bird ConstiLC members caught the message and went about diligently to set up the auditorium under the careful supervision of Firdaus Binti Husni. A crowd of approximately 200 guests, students, reporters, lawyers and members of NGOs attended this launch. A member of the Committee, Tey Jun Ren, managed to get a whole bus-load of UKM students to attend.Syabas!
The ConstiLC’s Co-Deputy Chairperson, Syahredzan Bin Johan, was the master of ceremony and with his pleasant voice he enthralled the participants. The launch started with the welcome address by the head of the Law Department of the College, Paul Linus Andrews. He shared, with emotion, on how he “had lost the glitter of that zealousness” to make a difference to the eager minds he taught. However, he continued in a positive tone that he has “a renewed belief that this campaign was going to be a tipping point; a catalyst for the birth of civil society and constitutionalism in this country”. He ended by encouraging everyone to pick up the Guides and read a page, and the ConstiLC to continue the struggle. The speech was followed by a moment of loud applause from the participants.
That was followed by a speech from the ConstiLC’s Co-Deputy Chairperson, Mahaletchumi Balakrishnan. She began by pointing out that most of us “inherited the Federal Constitution” without having to struggle for it and hence we have easily become complacent about it. She cautioned that “we must all be caretakers of the Constitution” failing which we may not be able to leave the same for the next generation. The participants were led through the main goals of the Campaign, the contents of the 2nd Rakyat Guides, the meaning of the doctrine of “separation of powers” and the concept of “check and balance”. Finally, she concluded with the hope that everyone will be an ardent supporter of the MyConstitution Campaign. With her tenacious and beautiful words, there was little doubt that many hearts were captured that evening.
The President of Malaysian Bar, Ragunath Kesavan, was heartened to see so many young people in the auditorium and many more MyConstitution fans following the launch and the forum via Twitter. He impressed upon the participants that the MyConstitution Facebook fan page has 3,955 fans where 75 percent of those fans are aged 18 to 35. After all, the Campaign is “for the Rakyat, by the Rakyat”. He commended ConstiLC for the success of the Campaign since its first launch two months ago. The ConstiLC has since received overwhelming invitations to hold talks, workshops, and mini-launches from groups and communities from all over Malaysia. With a final note, he called upon everyone to take ownership of our Constitution.
That was followed by the debut screening of the 2nd Rakyat Service Advertisement, an approximately one-minute video clip. The participants were amused by the adorable young actors and actresses. The video is now available for viewing at www.perlembagaanku.com orwww.youtube.com/user/PerlembagaanKu.
The highlight of the evening was the forum entitled “Conversation on the Constitution” or Bual-bual Perlembagaan. As promised, the forum was no ordinary teh tarik session. The moderator, Dato’ VC George, was able to put everyone at ease with his witty comments and managed to bring out the best from the speakers. The panel of speakers consisted of prominent people involved in the three main organs of government i.e. the Legislative, Judiciary and Executive. With their rich experience, they were the primary source of much sought after information. Conversations contained “nuggets of gold” of knowledge regarding the separation of powers concept.
The first speaker as a representative of the Legislature, Datuk Dr. Wan Junaidi bin Tuanku Jaafar (currently a Deputy Speaker of the Dewan Rakyat appointed on 28 April 2008), prepared a speech of 43 pages but was unable to reveal all due to time constraints. The full speech is now available for viewing at www.perlembagaanku.com.
He commented on the encroachment by the Executive in the Dewan Rakyat. The minority have their say but the majority have their ways by virtue of the power called the “whip” (collective responsibility). In essence, the Legislature is fully dominated by Executive. Within the period of twenty years, about 80% of the laws were passed without amendment. 15% were amended by the Government and only 5% were amended at the insistence of the Members of Parliament. He then discussed the Moroccan system where there is a “watch-dog” committee to monitor the spending of the country’s budget. Junaidi has called for such committees to be formed since 1994 but to no avail. He concluded that the Legislature is still akin to an infant of the Executive.
The second speaker as a representative of the Executive, Datuk Dr. M. Kayveas is the President of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), and who was the Member of Parliament for Taiping until the 2008 General Elections. He simplified the meaning of the “separation of powers” into the layman’s term of “mind your own business”. He pointed out that the Federal Constitution does not clearly spell out the concept of the separation of powers, only as to how the three main organs of the government are formed and each organ’s functions. There is no absolute separation of powers in our Malaysian system, for example, the appointments of judges are highly influenced by the Executive hence the Executive has some control over the Judiciary.
In his attempt to stimulate debate, he asked whether the Executive actually has power over therakyat. This is because the Executive could introduce any policy but its implementation is subject to the co-operation of the civil service. The immediate superiors of the departments/ministries must give instructions to their subordinates, otherwise the policy will not be implemented or enforced.
The third speaker as a representative of the Judiciary, Dato’ Abdul Kadir Sulaiman (formerly a Federal Court judge), is the current President of the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal. He maintained that the three main organs of government are separated as to their functions. In Malaysia, our written Federal Constitution is supreme. In comparison to the UK where its Constitution is unwritten, the UK courts have the power to change. In Malaysia, no law can ever contradict the provisions of the Constitution.
Before 1988, the Syariah Court was subordinate to the civil High Court. Since the amendment in 1988, the civil High Court has no power/jurisdiction over the Syariah Court. The Yang di-Pertuan Agong is a constitutional monarch as opposed to an absolute monarchy, and who acts on the advice of the Prime Minister in the appointment of judges. However, the Judiciary should be independent, to act without fear or favour. To safeguard this independence, a judge can only be removed by a tribunal. When he began to recall the judicial crisis in 1988, Dato’ Abdul Kadir paused for a while and ended his speech abruptly.
During the question and answer session, it is clear that the participants do not easily accept answers given to them but were eager to learn more. Some of the questions included the functions of the Public Accounts Committee, whether it is possible for Malaysia to have a Constitutional Court and whether a Sultan’s view should be taken where there is a dispute on the role of the Rulers.
In conclusion, Dato’ VC George said that there is more to learn than what had been shared that evening. The launch was brought to an end at about 7.00 pm. The participants gathered around the speakers to pick up more nuggets of gold until it was time for the speakers to leave.
The ConstiLC would like to thank everyone who contributed in one way or another to make this launch a success. We are grateful to all the Committee members, distinguished guests, speakers, participants and fans/followers of the Committee’s Facebook fan page and Twitter feeds. We hope that every Malaysian will take ownership of our Federal Constitution and continue to support the Campaign because after all, it is “for the Rakyat, by the Rakyat”. It is a Campaign about YOU.
The Campaign can be followed through these channels:
www.malaysianbar.org.my/constitutional_law_committee
www.facebook.com/MyConstitution
www.youtube.com/user/PerlembagaanKu
Copies of the 2nd Rakyat Guides on “Constitutional Institutions and Separation of Powers” are available at the Bar Council Secretariat in both English and Bahasa Melayu, and will be made available at all States through the State Bar Committees. Please contact our Executive Officer, Ms. Lim Ka Ea at 03-2031 7103 or email us at perlembagaanku@gmail.com for further queries.
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