The Malaysian political system refers to all those regulations and practices and the structure of laws that show how the government is run. Malaysian political system has a distinctive foundation on in terms of the country's machinery functions. The Constitution of Malaysia, which was enforced on the 27th of August 1957, was drafted under the advice of the Reid Commission when a study was conducted in 1956. (Rajeev, 2015).
Malaysia is currently adopting a constitutional monarchy with the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Yang Amat Berhormat (The Hounourable) Dato' Sri Mohd Najib bin Tun Abdul Razak as the head of government. Constitutional monarchy refers to a government system whereby there is a distribution of power between the monarch and a constitutionally elected government (Sinnadurai, 2004). The constitution in all constitutional democracies then allocates the power of the government to the three organs of government, namely, the executive, the legislature and the judiciary.
The monarch is basically the figure head, or the de facto Head of the State, while the Prime Minister and his Cabinet of Ministers administrate the country’s affairs. A figure head refers to an individual who is the head of a group or company in name, but in face possess no real authority or duty (Dictionary, 2017). Two essential principles are applied to all constitutional monarchs; constitutional monarchy means that the highest office in the land upstages politics. It denies ultimate power to any politician and helps to keep political power under control. Next, even though the exact powers of the constitutional monarchs are bounded by certain conventions, they play a vital role in offering the government assistance.
Despite this, the Yang di-Pertuan Agong (or supreme ruler) is the head of state (Malaysia: Constitution & Politics, 2017). This monarch is chosen for a five-year term from among the nine hereditary rulers of Peninsular Malaysia. These hereditary rulers originate from the states of Perlis, Kedah, Selangor, Pahang, Johor, Kelantan, Terengganu, Perak and Negeri Sembilan. Currently, Sultan Muhammad V of the Kelantan state is holding this title. The others remain as Sultan of their state and handle the matters of their respective state. The remaining four states without a monarch, namely the states of Pulau Pinang, Melaka, Sabah and Sarawak have figures with the title Governors instead. These Governors do not participate in the selection of the next Yang di-Pertuan Agong. The Rulers are Sovereigns in their respective States, but collectively play an important role as the Conference of Rulers under the Federal Constitution. The Federal Constitution gives out the powers of the King and the Conference of Rulers while the various State Constitutions deal with the powers of the respective Rulers.
The paramount ruler or Yang di-Pertuan Agong, is the lead figure when it comes to the Islamic faith in Malaysia. The political system of Malaysia is closely modelled on that of Westminster parliamentary system, a continued tradition of the British colonial empire. Mr Abdullah bin Ahmad Badawi was the Prime Minister since 31 October 2003, chosen from the lower house of parliament. The Executive power is vested in the cabinet led by the prime minister. The members of the cabinet are all chosen from among members of both houses of Parliament and have an obligation to that body.
As mentioned above, there are three branches in the Malaysian politics system, namely the executive branch, legislative branch and judicial branch. These three arms of the government are important because they provide the basis by which democracy is practiced, which is through the separation of power, checks and balances.
In terms of legislative, the government of the country is concerned with formulating and passing laws, but for the legislation to be effective they need a body to carry out the instructions of the legislators (Mohamad, 2009). Malaysia has bicameral Parliament that consists of a nonelected upper house and an elected lower house. The upper house has 70 seats, of which 44 are chosen by the King and 26 chosen by the state parliaments. The lower house has 222 seats, all of which are occupied by those who won by direct elections. The Prime Minister must be a member of the lower house. The legislative power of the political system of Malaysia is divided between the federal and the state legislatures.
For the lower house, the UMNO party (United Malays National Organization) has been dominating the seats for more than 30 years ever since the country’s independence on the 31st of August 1957 (Malaysia:Constitution & Politics,2017). The ruling party, which is also a coalition, is the Barisan Nasional (National Front) consisting of United Malays National Organization (UMNO) and 13 other parties, most of which are ethnically based. Other parties include Democratic Action Party (DAP), Parti Islam se Malaysia (PAS) and Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR). In total there are more than 30 registered political parties, all of which are represented in the federal parliament.
If the law is breached by anyone or if something that is unconstitutional happens, then the judiciary will be given the mission of passing judgment of what is right or wrong in accordance to the laws passed by the legislators, indicating the kind of punishment should be taken against the law breakers. The roles seem very clear-cut, where one is the legislative, the other one is the executive, and then the judiciary, and on top of it all, in order to make everything official, the monarchy signs and acts on the advice of the head of the legislator (Mahathir,2009).
Previous prime ministers since the independence have always been the leaders of UMNO. In particular, the government granted itself a power to diminish civil rights such as by banning criticism against the government after the Malay-Sino riots in 1969. Along with this, in 1971, the government amended the Constitution to make illegal any criticism, even in Parliament, of the Malaysian monarchy, the special position of Malays in the country, or the status of Malay as the national language (Sensitive Matters Amendment). These implementations indicate nondemocratic and Malay-favored features of the political system in Malaysia.
Thirdly, for judicial branch, The Malaysian legal system is based on English common law and most of the laws and the constitution are adapted from Indian law. There are the Federal Court, Court of Appeals, high courts, session's courts, magistrate's courts, and juvenile courts. The judges of the Federal Court are appointed by the paramount ruler on the advice of the prime minister. The federal government has authority over external affairs, defence, internal security, justice, federal citizenship, finance, commerce, industry, communications, transportation, and other matters.
The task given to the judiciary is actually to pass judgment on the laws that have been passed in the Parliament. The parliament creates the law; the judiciary then interprets it. Then, it passes judgment on cases involving breaches of the law. If a problem arises in the system, the problem is one of interpretation of the laws (Mahathir, 2009). For example, there is a massive amount of drug-addiction and drug-selling in the society causing problems to the society. As of this, the legislator passes a law against drug abuse or sales of drugs, and then when a person breaches this law, the judiciary has the authority to decide whether he has in fact breached this law. The punishment for the crime initially was either a life sentence or death sentence.
The state governments are led by chief ministers, nominated by the state assemblies and advising their respective sultans or governors. There are 13 states and three federal territories which are Kuala Lumpur, Labuan Island and the Putrajaya federal administrative territory. Each of these states has an assembly and government headed by a chief minister. Nine of these states have hereditary rulers, generally titled 'sultans', while the remaining four have appointed governors in counterpart positions (Rajeev, 2017).
During the previous prime minister’s regime, Malaysia became increasingly authoritarian in terms of the way the government is run. Authoritarianism here means preferring complete compliance or subjection to authority instead of choosing to practice individual freedom (Dictionary.com, 2017). In authoritarian governments, the people have no power or representation and it is characterized by absolute or blind obedience to formal authority, as against individual freedom and related to the expectation of unquestioning obedience. The elite leaders handle all economic, military, and foreign relations. Dictatorships are examples of authoritarianism (Rajeev, 2015). A stark example of this is the dismissal and imprisonment of the Deputy Prime Minister Ibrahim Anwar in 1997. Mr. Anwar was arrested for violating the Peace Preservation Law by criticizing the Mahathir’s policies. The charges were unsubstantiated, and this could show the complicity of the judiciary. However, the political environment has been steadily changing in Malaysia. Prime Minister Badawi Abdullah, who succeeded Mr. Mahathir in 2003, focused on eliminating corruptive practices which increased during the previous administration. Mr. Abdullah gave more power to anti-corruption agencies and arrested several public figures who conducted bribery under Mr. Mahathir’s rule. Mr. Abdullah also advocated for open politics which encouraged political partic1ipation of non-governmental organizations.
To conclude, the political regime of Malaysia can be defined as pseudo-democracy with a Malay-dominant political regime backed by the Constitution.