Federation of Malaya

Independence and the Making of Malaysia · Treatise · 9 min read

How did Malaya decide citizenship? Who counted as a person of this country

Independence was not only raising a flag; the Constitution also had to sort people into those who belonged automatically, those who could apply, and those still outside the door

The 1957 citizenship arrangement did not turn everyone living in Malaya into citizens at once. The Reid Commission recommended that people born in the Federation on or after Independence Day should become citizens by law, but did not recommend making everyone born in Malaya before independence a citizen retrospectively. This piece explains why citizenship was one of the sharpest blades in the independence Constitution: it decided who belonged automatically, and who had to prove belonging.