The Constitution: Your rights are all there

“The Constitution must be higher than the executive and administrative laws,” he said, urging all Malaysians to respect the social contract that had been agreed to and to compromise where it helps and where it hurts.

By Honeymah Dylyani, Malaysian Mirror

FEATURE LAWYER Sulaiman Abdullah, a native of Penang, recalled that there were, at one time, polls to elect the city mayor other councilors in the state.

It was his early glimpse of what democracy and the Constitution is all about – justice for the people and not to be suppressed by those in power.

“People must play and live by the rules. In the Constitution, the King is the symbol of the country’s sovereignty and we pledge our loyalty to him.

“The King is the protector of the land; not the lord of the land like his foreign medieval counterparts, Sulaiman said at a forum to mark the launch of the Bar Council’s MyConstitution campaign on Nov 13. It was launched by Deputy Minister in the Prime minister's Department Liew Vui Keong.

The two-year campaign sets to get all Malaysians – especially the younger citizens aged 15 to 35 – to understand their rights, as enshrined in the country’s Constitution, and to use this charter as their guide in nation-building.

Sulaiman (pic, left), the co-chairman of the Pro Bono and Access to Justice Committee of the International Bar Association, was among the law activists and academicians who shared their views on the future direction of the country’s supreme law; the Federal Constitution.

The others were Dr Azmi Sharom, an associate professor at Universiti Malaya’s Law Faculty, Malik Imtiaz Sarwar, president of the National Human Rights Society (Hakam), Dr Abdul Aziz Bari, a political commentator and constitutional lawyer Emeritus Prof Dr Shad Saleem Faruqi.

Chairing the forum was the Bar Council’s past president, Ambiga Sreenevasan, who is also a executive committee member of the feminist Women’s Aid Organisation (WAO).

What is the Constitution?

“The Constitution is the basic document that guarantees the rights of the people,” said Sulaiman, pledging he would defend it.

His reference to local elections is pertinent and consistent with calls by various quarters to revive such elections, which were suspended after the Indonesia-Malaysia confrontation in 1964.

The suspension was never lifted and the matter instead was made permanent under the Local Government Act 1976, which stipulates that local government members be appointed by the respective state governments.

In the March 2008 general elections, the DAP and the PKR included in their manifesto that local elections would be revived if they were to chosen to lead the country.

The two parties, together with PAS, managed to topple the Barisan Nasional in several states but they are still not able to carry out the plan to hold local council elections due to the Federal Constitution which prohibited the implementation. There are clauses in the Constitution that allows it to be amended.

Political observers feel it is unlikely that such elections would be brought back because "policymakers know from experience worldwide that the Opposition tends to dominate such councils as part of the electorate's desire for checks-and-balances."

The ruling Barisan Nasional coalition, however, has its own reason for not wanting to hold more elections: “It is expensive.”

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