The Reid Commission was an independent commission responsible for drafting the Constitution of the Federation of Malaya prior to Malayan independence from the United Kingdom on 31 August 1957.
A constitutional conference was held in London from 18 January to 6 February 1956 attended by a delegation from the Federation of Malaya, consisting of four representatives of the Malay Rulers, the Chief Minister of the Federation (Tunku Abdul Rahman) and three other ministers, and also by the British High Commissioner in Malaya and his advisers.
The conference proposed the appointment of an independent commission to devise a constitution for a fully self-governing and independent Federation of Malaya. This proposal was accepted by Queen Elizabeth II and the Malay rulers.
In March 1956, an independent commission to draw up a constitution for a fully self-governing and independent Malaya was set up. Accordingly, a commission headed by Lord Reid, a distinguished Lord of Appeal in ordinary, and consisting of constitutional experts from fellow Commonwealth countries was appointed by the Queen Elizabeth II and the Malay Rulers. The commission was appropriately called the Reid Commission. The commission was to include a Canadian representative, but they were unable to attend for reasons of ill health. [1]
The Reid Commission met 118 times between June and October 1956 and received 131 memoranda from various individuals and organisations, including proposals from the Alliance Party and the Conference of Rulers.
The commission submitted its working draft on 21 February 1957, which was scrutinised by a Working Committee. The Working Committee consisted of four representatives from the Malay rulers, another four from the Alliance government, the British High Commissioner, the Chief Secretary, and the Attorney General.
Although enshrining concepts such as federalism and a constitutional monarchy, the proposed Malayan constitution by the Reid Commission also contained provisions protecting special position for the Malays, such as quotas in admission to higher education and the civil service, and making Islam the official religion of the federation. It also made Malay the official language of the nation, but the right to vernacular education in Chinese and Tamil would be protected.
Although Tunku Abdul Rahman and the Malay rulers had asked the Reid Commission to ensure that "in an independent Malaya all nationals should be accorded equal rights, privileges and opportunities and there must not be discrimination on grounds of race and creed", the Malay's special position, which many in the ruling United Malays National Organisation backed, were cited as necessary by the Reid Commission as a form of affirmative action. The controversial measures were included as Articles 3, 152 and 153 of the Constitution. [2] [3]
On the basis of their recommendations, the new Federal Constitution was passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom in June 1957. The constitution draft was presented, debated and passed the Federal Legislative Council on August 15, 1957, and the Constitution took effect on August 27, but there was no referendum involving Malayan people to be held. [4]
However, formal independence was achieved only on August 31, when the Federation of Malaya became an independent sovereign country.
The constitutional machinery devised to bring the new constitution into force consisted of the following:
Large-scale amendments to the Constitution were made when Singapore, Sabah and Sarawak merged with the Federation of Malaya to form the Federation of Malaysia in 1963. It then became known as the Federal Constitution.
The Federation of Malaya, more commonly known as Malaya, was a country of what previously had been the Malayan Union and, before that, British Malaya. It comprised eleven states – nine Malay states and two of the Straits Settlements, Penang and Malacca. It was established on 1 February 1948.
Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj ibni Almarhum Sultan Abdul Hamid Halim Shah was a Malaysian statesman and lawyer who served as the first prime minister of Malaysia and the head of government of its predecessor states from 1955 to 1970. He was the first chief minister of the Federation of Malaya from 1955 to 1957. He supervised the independence process that culminated on 31 August 1957. As an independent Malaysia's first prime minister, he dominated the country's politics for the next 13 years.
The United Malays National Organisation ; abbreviated UMNO or less commonly PEKEMBAR, is a nationalist right-wing political party in Malaysia. As the oldest national political party within Malaysia, UMNO has been known as Malaysia's "Grand Old Party".
The Federal Constitution of Malaysia, which came into force in 1957 as the Constitution of the Federation of Malaya and was amended in 1963 to form the Constitution of Malaysia, is the supreme law of Malaysia and contains a total of 183 articles. It is a written legal document influenced by two previous documents, the Federation of Malaya Agreement 1948 and the Independence Constitution of 1957. The Federation was initially called the Federation of Malaya and it adopted its present name, Malaysia, when the states of Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore became part of the Federation. The Constitution establishes the Federation as a constitutional monarchy, having the Yang di-Pertuan Agong as the Head of State with largely ceremonial roles. It provides for the establishment and organisation of three main branches of the government: the bicameral legislative branch called the Parliament, which consists of the House of Representatives and the Senate ; the executive branch led by the Prime Minister and his Cabinet Ministers and the judicial branch headed by the Federal Court.
Tuanku Sir Abdul Rahman ibni Almarhum Tuanku Muhammad was Yang di-Pertuan Besar of Negeri Sembilan from 1933, and the first Yang di-Pertuan Agong of the Federation of Malaya from 1957, until his death in 1960.
Sultan Sir Ibrahim Al-Masyhur ibni Almarhum Sultan Abu Bakar Al-Khalil Ibrahim Shah was a Malaysian sultan and the 2nd modern Sultan of Johor and 22nd Sultan of Johor overall. He was considered "fabulously wealthy."
Independence Day, also known as National Day, is the independence day of the Federation of Malaya from the British Empire. It commemorates the Malayan Declaration of Independence of 31 August 1957, and is defined in article 160 of the Constitution of Malaysia. The day is marked by official and unofficial ceremonies and observances across the country.
Article 153 of the Constitution of Malaysia grants the Yang di-Pertuan Agong responsibility for "safeguard[ing] the special position of the 'Malays'(see note) and natives of any of the States of Sabah and Sarawak and the legitimate interests of other communities" and goes on to specify ways to do this, such as establishing quotas for entry into the civil service, public scholarships and public education.
The social contract in Malaysia is a political construct first brought up in the 1980s, allegedly to justify the continuation of the discriminatory preferential policies for the majority Bumiputera at the expense of the non-Bumiputera, particularly the Chinese and Indian citizens of the country. Generally describing the envisaged 20-year initial duration of the Malaysian New Economic Policy, proponents of the construct allege that it reflects an "understanding" arrived at – prior to Malaya's independence in 1957 – by the country's "founding fathers", which is an ill-defined term generally taken to encompass Tunku Abdul Rahman, Malaysia's first Prime Minister, as well as V. T. Sambanthan and Tan Cheng Lock, who were the key leaders of political parties representing the Malay, Indian and Chinese populations respectively in pre-independence Malaya.
This article lists important figures and events in Malayan public affairs during the year 1957, together with births and deaths of significant Malayans. Malaya became independent from British colonial rule on 31 August 1957.
Singapore, officially the State of Singapore, was one of the 14 states of Malaysia from 1963 to 1965. Malaysia was formed on 16 September 1963 by the merger of the Federation of Malaya with the former British colonies of North Borneo, Sarawak and Singapore. This marked the end of the 144-year British rule in Singapore which began with the founding of modern Singapore by Sir Stamford Raffles in 1819. At the time of merger, it was the smallest state in the country by land area, but the largest by population.
Tunku Abdul Rahman formed the first Rahman cabinet after being invited to begin a new government following the 27 July 1955 general election in Malaysia. Upon receiving the assent of the Rulers of the Malay States, the composition of the cabinet was announced by the High Commissioner of the Federation of Malaya, Donald MacGillivray, from King's House on 4 August 1955. The cabinet was sworn on 9 August 1955, by the Chief Justice of Malaya, Prethaser. It was the first cabinet of Malaysia formed since independence.
Tun Omar Ong Yoke Lin was a Malaysian politician, diplomat and businessman. He was a founding member of the Malaysian Chinese Association, and was a key figure in the country's road to independence. Ong served various positions in the government of Malaya and Malaysia, as a Cabinet minister and ambassador.
The foundation of the Constitution of Malaysia was laid on 10 September 1877. It began with the first meeting of the Council of State in Perak, where the Yang di-Pertuan Agong first started to assert their influence in the Malay states. Under the terms of the Pangkor Engagement of 1874 between the Sultan of Perak and the British, the Sultan was obliged to accept a British Resident. Hugh Low, the second British Resident, convinced the Sultan to set up advisory Council of State, the forerunner of the state legislative assembly. Similar Councils were constituted in the other Malay states as and when they came under British protection.
Nik Ahmad Kamil bin Nik Mahmud was a Malaysian politician who played an active role during the country's road to independence. A prominent member of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) in the state of Kelantan, he served as the fourth Speaker of the Dewan Rakyat, the lower house of the Malaysian Parliament.
The monarchies of Malaysia exist in each of the nine Malay states under the constitutional monarchy system as practised in Malaysia. The political system of Malaysia is based on the Westminster parliamentary system in combination with features of a federation.
The Malaysia Agreement, or the Agreement relating to Malaysia between United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Federation of Malaya, North Borneo, Sarawak and Singapore (MA63) was a legal document which agreed to combine North Borneo (Sabah), Sarawak, and Singapore with the existing states of Malaya, the resulting union being named Malaysia. Signed in London, United Kingdom, the agreement has been in effect since 16 September 1963; Singapore was subsequently expelled from Malaysia not long after this agreement, becoming a sovereign state on 9 August 1965.
The Proclamation of Malaysia was a statement, written in English and Malay, that declared the merger of the Federation of Malaya with the State of Singapore and the British crown colonies of North Borneo and Sarawak into the new Federation of Malaysia, following the enactment of the Malaysia Agreement and the Malaysia Act 1963 that July. The merger came into effect on 16 September 1963, and the proclamation was delivered on that date by Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman in the Stadium Merdeka in Kuala Lumpur.
The Malayan Declaration of Independence, was officially proclaimed on Saturday, 31 August 1957, by Tunku Abdul Rahman, the first chief minister of the Federation of Malaya. In a ceremony held at the Merdeka Stadium, the proclamation document was read out at exactly 09:30 a.m. in the presence of thousands of Malayan citizens, Malay Rulers and foreign dignitaries. The proclamation acknowledges the establishment of an independent and democratic Federation of Malaya, which came into effect on the termination of the British protectorate over nine Malay states and the end of British colonial rule in two Straits Settlements, Malacca and Penang.
The Constitution of Penang, introduced in 1957, is the fundamental law of the Malaysian state of Penang. The constitution, which came into effect just before the independence of the Malayan Federation from the British Empire, concerns the formation and proceedings of the state government. It also establishes the Governor as the head of state who acts in the discretion of the Chief Minister, the head of government.
