Social contract (Malaysia)
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The social contract in
The "social contract" retrospectively creates the notion of a trade-off between the majority and minority ethnic populations of Malaysia. Under this notion, Articles 14–18 of the Constitution of Malaysia, which provided a pathway to citizenship for Chinese, Indians and other minorities in 1957, were enacted "in exchange for" Article 153 of the same Constitution, which preserves certain quotas and other rights for the majority Bumiputera population. Proponents of the Malaysian social contract claim that this was both a quid pro quo and a condition precedent for the granting of citizenship to the non-Bumiputera populations of Malaya in 1957, particularly the Chinese and the Indians.
As has been pointed out by numerous academics and scholars, however, the idea of a quid pro quo for citizenship does not appear anywhere in the detailed report or deliberations of the Reid Commission, the independent commission responsible for drafting the Constitution. Neither can any reference to such a trade-off be found in the contemporary statements or writings of the "founding fathers".[1] Deemed as a fabrication, the term "social contract" in the Malaysian context was, in fact, first used by United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) politician Abdullah Ahmad in 1986 in a political speech he delivered in his visit to Singapore.[2]
The concept of a social contract is well-established in Western political philosophy and dates from the Age of Enlightenment. Its Malaysian counterpart is controversial because it has been perceived by some as a mere propaganda device which has no actual historical basis. In its typical context related to race relations, the Malaysian social contract has been heavily criticised by many, including some politicians from the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, who contend that constant harping on the non-Malays' debt to the Malays for citizenship has alienated them from the country. Such criticisms have met with opposition from some sectors of the Malay media and UMNO, the largest political party in BN. In addition to this, even academic scholars have doubted the authenticity of the notion of this contract as the contract itself is not mentioned in said constitution;[2] economist and academician Ungku Abdul Aziz claimed it to be "a fantasy made up by politicians according to their interests".[3]
Alleged scope of the "social contract"
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Its defenders often refer to the Constitution as setting out the social contract, and the Malaysian founding fathers having agreed to it, although no reference to a "social contract" appears in the Constitution, nor has any document ever fully set out the social contract's terms.[2] Instead, the social contract is merely asserted to represent a permanent agreement regarding the "special position of the Malays" by the non-Malay population, as the historical and unquestionable price paid in exchange for full citizenship. The idea of the Malaysian social contract has permeated the country's political discourse and even educational materials. A higher education Malaysian studies textbook conforming to the government syllabus states: "Since the Malay leaders agreed to relax the conditions for citizenship, the leaders of the Chinese and Indian communities accepted the special position of the Malays as indigenous people of Malaya. With the establishment of Malaysia, the special position status was extended to include the indigenous communities of Sabah and Sarawak."[4]
Another description of the social contract narrows it down to the Malays and Chinese only, stating it to be an agreement that "Malay entitlement to political and administrative authority should be accepted unchallenged, at least for the time being, in return for non-interference in Chinese control of the economy".[5]
The Constitution explicitly grants the Bumiputra reservations of land, quotas in the civil service,
The Constitution also included elements of Malay tradition as part of the Malaysian national identity. The
There is no such thing as a racial "right" to be given special treatment. And that is not me being argumentative, it's the Constitution. You won't find "Malay rights" in the supreme law of our land, instead, you will find terms such as "special position" of Malays. The difference is more than semantics. A right implies something inalienable. A privilege on the other hand is a benefit, presumably given to those who need it.
Such critics have used this basis to argue that the social contract was meant "to protect the Malays from being overwhelmed economically, administratively and politically from the immigrant ethnic groups of the time", instead of granting particular special rights to the Malays.[7]
Some suggest that this bias towards Malays in education and politics is, in part, a response to the ability of the Malaysian Chinese to secure most of the country's wealth. The Indian Malaysians, as with the Indian Singaporeans, can make a case for being those that lose out the most, although this may be disputed.[8]
The government did roll back the quota system for entry to public universities in 2003 and introduced a policy of "
The Reid Commission which prepared the framework for the Constitution stated in its report that Article 153, the alleged backbone of the social contract, would be temporary only, and recommended that it be reviewed 15 years after independence. The Commission also said that the Article and its provisions would only be necessary to avoid sudden unfair disadvantage to the Malays in competing with other members of Malaysian society, and that the privileges accorded the Malays by the article should be gradually reduced and eventually eliminated. Due to the 13 May Incident, after which a state of emergency was declared, Article 153 was not reviewed in the year 1972, which was the 15th year as recommended by the Reid Commission.
According to the social contract's proponents, in return for the enactment of these originally temporary provisions, non-Malay Malaysians are accorded citizenship under Chapter 1 of Part III of the Constitution. Except for the Bumiputra privileges, non-Bumiputras are otherwise generally regarded as equal to their Bumiputra counterparts, and are accorded all the rights of citizenship as under Part II of the Constitution. In recent years, some have sought to provide Malay citizens with more political rights as per the ketuanan Melayu philosophy. However, most of these ketuanan Melayu proponents argue that their additional rights are already written as law and thus only seek to "defend" them from their opponents.
When he assumed the Presidency of UMNO, Tunku Abdul Rahman (later the first Prime Minister of Malaysia) stated that "...when we (the Malays) fought against the Malayan Union (which upset the position of the Malays' rights) the others took no part in it because they said this is purely a Malay concern, and not theirs. They also indicate that they owe their loyalty to their countries of origin, and for that reason they oppose the Barnes Report to make Malay the national language. If we were to hand over the Malays to these so-called Malayans when their nationality has not been defined there will be a lot of problems ahead of us." However, he continued that "For those who love and feel they owe undivided loyalty to this country, we will welcome them as Malayans. They must truly be Malayans, and they will have the same rights and privileges as the Malays."[9]
Early criticism
Article 153, and thus by extension the social contract, has been a source of controversy since the early days of Malaysia. Singaporean politician
Lee criticised the government's policies by stating that "[t]hey, the Malay, have the right as Malaysian citizens to go up to the level of training and education that the more competitive societies, the non-Malay society, has produced. That is what must be done, isn't it? Not to feed them with this obscurantist doctrine that all they have got to do is to get Malay rights for the few special Malays and their problem has been resolved."[11] He also lamented, "Malaysia – to whom does it belong? To Malaysians. But who are Malaysians? I hope I am, Mr Speaker, Sir. But sometimes, sitting in this chamber, I doubt whether I am allowed to be a Malaysian."
Lee's statements upset many, especially politicians from the Alliance, Barisan Nasional's predecessor. Then Finance Minister Tan Siew Sin of the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) called Lee the "greatest, disruptive force in the entire history of Malaysia and Malaya." Tunku Abdul Rahman, the first Prime Minister of Malaysia, considered Lee to be too extremist in his views, while other UMNO politicians thought Lee was simply taking advantage of the situation to pander to the Malaysian Chinese.
Present debate
In 2005, the social contract was brought up by Lim Keng Yaik of the Gerakan party in Barisan Nasional. Lim, a Minister in the government, asked for a re-examination of the social contract so that a "Bangsa Malaysia" (literally Malay for a Malaysian race or Malaysian nation) could be achieved. Lim was severely criticised by many Malay politicians, including Khairy Jamaluddin who is Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's son-in-law and Deputy Chairman of the UMNO Youth wing, and Ahmad Shabery Cheek, a prominent Malay Member of Parliament from the state of Terengganu. The Malay press (most of which is owned by UMNO) also ran articles condemning the questioning of the social contract. Lim was adamant, asking in an interview "How do you expect non-Malays to pour their hearts and souls into the country, and to one day die for it if you keep harping on this? Flag-waving and singing the Negaraku (the national anthem) are rituals, while true love for the nation lies in the heart."
A year earlier, Abdullah had given a speech where he mentioned the most "significant aspect" of the social contract as "the agreement by the indigenous peoples to grant citizenship to the immigrant Chinese and Indians". However, Abdullah went on to state that "the character of the nation" changed to "one that Chinese and Indian citizens could also call their own". However, the speech went largely unremarked.
In the end, Lim stated that the Malay press had blown his comments out of proportion and misquoted him. The issue ended with UMNO Youth chief and Education Minister
Earlier that year, Hishamuddin had brandished the
Other politicians, mostly from opposition parties, have also criticised the NEP and its provisions, but refrained from directly criticising the social contract or Article 153 of the Constitution. Former Deputy Prime Minister
Article 10 (4) of the Constitution permits the government to ban the questioning of Article 153, and thus the social contract; indeed, the Sedition Act does illegalise such questioning. The
More recently, some commentators have remarked on younger Malaysians chafing at the terms of the social contract. One wrote that "half a century on, younger non-Malays especially feel they were not parties to deals and contracts (at the time of independence) and should not be beholden to them."[12] In 2006, several non-Malay parties in the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition called for a re-examination of the social contract; Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's refusal to do so reportedly triggered "much consternation". Abdullah was quoted in the Malay media as saying: "If we change this balance and if we are forced to meet all over again on the rights of every group, it will not be the same as now. It would be far from satisfactory. Whatever the new formula, it will not succeed because the old formula is enough, is already maximum. As everyone had agreed to this before, why do we want to disturb this and meet again?"[13]
That year, at the UMNO General Assembly, several delegates criticised other members of the government coalition for criticising the social contract and
See also
- Indophobia
- Sinophobia
Notes and references
- ^ In Malaysia, the term "Bumiputera" refers to the Malays, the Orang Asli of Peninsular Malaysia (lit. "indigenous people") and the various indigenous peoples of Borneo, an island politically divided between Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia.
- ^ "The mythical social contract".
- ^ a b c Fatimah Zainal; Chung, Clarrisa (24 March 2019). "Experts: 'Social contract' never in the Constitution". The Star. Retrieved 2 May 2020.
- ^ "Ungku Abdul Aziz: No such thing as 'social contract'". 12 May 2008.
- ISBN 983-74-2024-3.
- ISBN 983-2639-21-2.
- ^ "Fear–mongers drown out genuine issues - the Malaysian Bar".
- ^ "Fear–mongers drown out genuine issues - the Malaysian Bar".
- ^ Asia Sentinel (26 November 2007). [1]. Indian Discontent in Malaysia.
- ISBN 967-978-135-6.
- ISBN 0-9751646-1-9.
- ^ Lee, Kuan Yew (2000). The Singapore Story, Abridged edition, pp. 327–328. Federal Publications.
- ^ Arifin, Zainul (15 November 2006). Umno could look out for others, too. New Straits Times.
- ^ Bose, Romen (17 November 2006). Racial tensions on rise in Malaysia Archived 27 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine. Al Jazeera.
- ^ Ahmad, Reme (17 November 2006). Race tensions not worrying: Abdullah Archived 14 October 2007 at the Wayback Machine. Malaysia Today.
- ^ Ahmad, Reme (17 November 2006). Race tensions not worrying: Abdullah Archived 14 October 2007 at the Wayback Machine. The Straits Times.
- ^ 'Hisham and his keris' remark shocks Karpal. (18 November 2006). Malaysiakini.
Other references
- Adam, Ramlah binti, Samuri, Abdul Hakim bin & Fadzil, Muslimin bin (2004). Sejarah Tingkatan 3. Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka. ISBN 983-62-8285-8.
- "Anwar: Time to suspend NEP". (28 October 2005). Malaysiakini.
- Badawi, Abdullah Ahmad (2004). "The Challenges of Multireligious, Multiethnic and Multicultural Societies". Retrieved 12 November 2005.
- "Don't Raise Social Contract Issue, Umno Youth Chief Warns". (15 August 2005). Bernama.
- Goh, Cheng Teik (1994). Malaysia: Beyond Communal Politics. Pelanduk Publications. ISBN 967-978-475-4.
- "'Impossible to co-operate with Singapore while Lee is Premier'". (2 June 1965). Straits Times.
- "Johor Umno Says Meritocracy A Form Of Discrimination". (9 July 2005). Bernama.
- Khaw, Ambrose (1998). "This man is making too much noise". Retrieved 11 November 2005.
- Lim, Kit Siang (2002). "Liong Sik and Keng Yaik also suffer from the 'Mudah Lupa' syndrome, forgetting the clear and unequivocal calls by Tunku Abdul Rahman and Hussein Onn and MCA founding fathers not to turn Malaysia into an Islamic state". Retrieved 12 November 2005.
- Lim, Kit Siang (2004). "2004 general election will be a critical test of the reaffirmation or abandonment of the 46-year Merdeka 'social contract' of Malaysia as a democratic, secular and multi-religious nation with Islam as the official religion but not an Islamic State". Retrieved 12 November 2005.
- Musa, M. Bakri (1999). The Malay Dilemma Revisited. Merantau Publishers. ISBN 1-58348-367-5.
- Ooi, Jeff (2004). "Meritocracy: Naked Lies or Partial Truth?". Retrieved 11 November 2005.
- Ooi, Jeff (2005). "The 30% solution". Retrieved 12 November 2005.
- Ooi, Jeff (2005). "New controversy: Social Contract and Bangsa Malaysia". Retrieved 12 November 2005.
- Ooi, Jeff (2005). "Perils of the sitting duck". Retrieved 11 November 2005.
- Ooi, Jeff (2005). "Social Contract: 'Utusan got the context wrong'". Retrieved 11 November 2005.
- Ye, Lin-Sheng (2003). The Chinese Dilemma. East West Publishing. ISBN 0-9751646-1-9.
- Yeoh, Oon (4 June 2004). "Meritocracy: The truth must be well told". The Sun.
- Yusoff, Marzuki & Samah, Nazeri Nong (14 August 2005). "Kontrak sosial: Kenyataan Keng Yaik bercanggah Perlembagaan Persekutuan". Utusan Malaysia.