Constitution must comply with Reid Commission, says Waytha

The Federal Constitution is not about first Malayan Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman alone but the Intention of the Founding Fathers in 1957 as expressed in the recommendations by the Reid Commission.

KUALA LUMPUR: Hindraf Makkal Sakthi urged the Malaysian Government, in conjunction with Human Rights Day, to ratify key international conventions and bring the Federal Constitution in line with the Intention of the Founding Fathers in 1957 as expressed in the Reid Commission’s recommendations. It added that it leaves the issue of the Federal Constitution complying with the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) to the people of Sabah and Sarawak.

“While Malaya/Malaysia has been a member of the UN since Merdeka and sat in the Human Rights Council twice, it has not ratified key human rights covenants of the UN, in particular the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights adopted by the UN on 16 December 1966, “said Hindraf Chairman P. Waythamoorthy, also a senior lawyer in private practice, and until last year a Senator and Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department.

Waytha added that while the international convenants are important, the even greater focus should be on revisiting the fact that first Malayan Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman virtually hijacked the finalisation of the Federal Constitution, a task entrusted to the Reid Commission.

“After 58 years, we find ourselves in a predicament where the Federal Court, sitting as the Constitutional Court, was unable to interpret the Intention of the Founding Fathers. The Supreme Law of the Land was saddled with ambiguous, and even obsolete, provisions.”

Waytha charged that the Malayan Constitution was deliberately approved by the UK Parliament “to suit the manipulative interests of the Tunku who was not the only Founding Father”.

He urged, as a way forward, that documents related to the Federal Constitution be declassified and placed in the public domain. “This is the only way to determine what went wrong in the formulation of the Malayan Constitution.”

“The documents to be declassified and released should include the secret minutes of the illegal Working Party which mutilated the recommendations of the Reid Commission. The Working Party must have known that it was infringing international laws, covenants and conventions.”

Waytha cited the controversial Article 153 in the Federal Constitution as a case in point. “The 2nd limb of Article 153 talks about the legitimate interests of non-Malays when it should be about legitimate rights.”

Again, pointing out another anamoly, Waytha said Article 153 was amended in 1963 to include the Orang Asal of Sabah and Sarawak but as in 1957, the Orang Asli in the peninsula were again excluded “when they are the indigenous people of the land in the peninsula”.

Elsewhere, continued Waytha, Article 8 on Equality must be looked at again, Article 12 must restore freedom of worship and the Rule of Law under Article 4 must be restored.

Hindraf is before the Court of Appeal in the UK on, among others, the Federal Constitution.

The Court recommended that Hindraf pursue its case at the European Human Rights Court in Brussels. However, the NGO decided to exhaust its remedies in the UK first.