A History of the 1957 Federation of Malaya Constitution

Book excerpt: Fernando examines important aspects of the drafting of 1957 Federation of Malaya constitution related to the system of governance, division of legislative and executive powers, the conceptualisation of citizenship and the roles of the judiciary and election commission. The book sheds new light on the balances that the Reid Commission sought to embed in the constitution and the historical constitutional debates and discussions which greatly shaped the framing of the new federal constitution between 1956 and 1957. Drawing on historical evidence mainly from declassified primary constitutional documents, it analyses the submissions, debates and discussions among the framers and various interest groups during the drafting of the constitution between 1956 and 1957 to discern more clearly the intentions of the framers on many aspects of governance and distribution of powers embedded in the constitutional provisions. This book reveals more deeply the nature and complexity of the constitutional issues faced by the framers and how they attempted to reach compromises between the various interest groups in Malaya. It is a valuable resource for scholars and academics of Malaysian, Asian and Commonwealth constitutional history as well as those interested in history, law, political science and important aspects of governance and distribution of powers in the system of parliamentary democracy.