Push for students to learn the Constitution from Std 1

The Malaysian Insider

By Debra Chong

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 11 — Law experts are pushing the Cabinet to introduce constitutional law as a must-pass subject in schools within the next two years in an effort to promote the rule of law in Malaysia.

“There is a mass of lost generations who need to learn how the country should be run,” the Bar Council's Edmund Bon told The Malaysian Insider.

The 35-year-old lawyer is heading a massive campaign nationwide to educate the public about the Federal Constitution.

“This is the prime document that spells the basic structure of how our country was formed,” Bon said.

His ultimate aim is to “have an educated class know what the document that has held our country together is all about.”

But he hopes to convince the Education Ministry to approve constitutional law as a subject in schools.

“I want it to go from Standard One,” Bon said.

“When do kids start reciting the Rukun Negara?” he quizzed, referring to the five guiding national principles that sum up the Constitution that are taught to children as soon as they enrol in school at age seven.

“You think they know what is 'Keluhuran Perlembagaan', the 'Supremacy of the Constitution'?” he asked.

Bon mooted the idea after being elected to head a special committee on constitutional law in March.

“It's the first time the Bar Council is doing this,” he said.

The catalyst for the campaign is the constitutional crisis in Perak, which is yet to be resolved pending the Federal Court's decision on who is the lawful mentri besar.

Bon explained that the peninsula-based association for lawyers had also been flooded with questions dealing with various aspects of law and governance in the wake of last year's landmark general election, which ended the ruling front's two-thirds control of Parliament and enabled the opposition to rule in five states.

“This campaign is for any lay person to read and understand the Constitution for themselves,” he explained.

The Cabinet has been supportive of the campaign so far, Bon said.

Minister in the Prime Minister's Department in charge of law and parliamentary affairs Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz has asked the Bar Council to prepare a paper for the Cabinet to mull over and will decide in January.

The “MyConstitution” campaign, which Bon calls “long overdue”, has been planned out for the next two years and is divided into nine parts.

The first two months will involve a lot of legwork, with the distribution of some 100,000 pocket-sized booklets in Bahasa Malaysia and English introducing the Federal Constitution to youths between 15 and 35.

So far, the Bar Council has only received the verbal support of the Federal and Selangor governments.

It is looking for other partners to help it take the show on the road, especially into rural areas.

The campaign will kick off on Friday with a public forum entitled “Conversations on the Constitution” at the Bar Council headquarters here at 3pm.

The five speakers on the panel are National Human Rights Society (Hakam) president Malik Imtiaz Sarwar, veteran lawyer Sulaiman Abdullah, and academics Professor Shad Faruqi, Abdul Aziz Bari and Azmi Sharom.

Its website where visitors can download the Federal Constitution for free, will be launched by Nazri's deputy Datuk Liew Vui Keong at the same time.