11
Constitutional developments in Malaysia in the first
decade of the twenty-first century
A nation at the crossroads
H.P. Lee*
Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad was at the helm as Malaysia greeted
the dawn of the twenty-first century. Before vacating office on 31 October 2003 he
had led the Barisan Nasional (BN) to victory in five general elections, cementing his
legacy as the longest-serving prime minister of Malaysia ( 1981 – 2003 ). He was
succeeded by Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi ( 2003 – 9 ), who in turn
was succeeded on 3 April 2009 by Prime Minister Dato’ Sri Mohd Najib Razak, the
eldest son of Malaysia’s second prime minister, Tun Abdul Razak Hussein.
A major event that contributed to the changing fortunes of the BN, the ruling
coalition, and a reconfiguration of the political map was the general election of
March 2008. For the first time since independence from British colonial rule on
31 August 1957 , this election resulted in the BN losing its two-thirds majority in the
Dewan Rakyat, the lower house of the federal parliament.^1 The victory by the
Pakatan Rakyat (PR) opposition in the State of Perak set off a chain of events which
thrust constitutional principles into the spotlight when three PR members switched
allegiance and deprived the PR government of a majority to govern the State of
Perak in its own right. Another event occurring in the period under review was
the ongoing prosecution of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim who was once anointed the
likely inheritor of the prime ministerial mantle from Mahathir. The period under
review was also dominated by pervasive concerns over the erosion of public
confidence in the Malaysian judiciary, the state of fundamental liberties and the
‘Islamisation’ of Malaysia.
In sectioni of this chapter, I will provide a brief conspectus of Malaysia’s
parliamentary government. In sectionii, I will discuss some key aspects of the
political struggles leading to the rise of the PR as a viable alternative governing
* I wish to thank Richard Foo and Amber Tan for their assistance in updating this chapter.(^1) James Chin and Wong Chin Huat, ‘Malaysia’s electoral upheavals’ ( 2009 ) 20 ( 3 )Journal of
Democracy 71.