Detention without trial in Malaysia

Independence and the Making of Malaysia · Treatise · 7 min read

What Basic Liberties Does the Malaysian Constitution Protect?

The Emergency Has Not Ended, Yet the Constitution Must Enshrine Personal Liberty, Equality, Speech, Religion, Education, and Property

The independence constitution not only distributes state power but also enshrines fundamental liberties. Part II includes provisions on personal liberty, slavery and forced labor, protection against retrospective criminal laws and repeated trials, equality, freedom of speech, assembly and association, freedom of religion, rights in respect of education, and rights to property. But these freedoms were written in a political climate where the Emergency had not ended, thus they carried restrictions, exceptions, and security pressures from the start. This article serves as an entry point: why freedom matters, and why it should not be mythologized as being completely without limits.