Picture Credit: LetÃcia Alvares, Serodja , Alfianamy
Malaysian may not be aware that the Federal Constitution Allows No Discrimination
Editor's Note . . .
In law, Article 8 in the Constitution, there can be no discrimination save as provided by law in the form of sunset clause which must have expiry date. Otherwise, all are equal before the law, no one was above the law.
It's Article 4 and the Conference of Rulers that keep redundant clauses in the Constitution. The redundant clauses include Article 3, an aberration in law, in secular state.
The Constitution, Parliament, and the court of law -- colour blind institutions -- can't get into anything other than the rule of law.
The Orang Asal (original people) in Sabah and Sarawak and the Orang Asli (aboriginal people) in Malaya, for example, are about ancestral and historical property rights in the form of NCR (native customary rights) land under Adat based on customary rights and having force of law, Article 13 (property rights), Article 5 (right to life) and Article 8 (no discrimination).
The same Articles protect non-NCR land.
The Federal Court, in an exception, accepts DNA test as proof of descent from citizen for Article 14 purposes.
Footnote . . .
Convention, the working of the Constitution, was more important per se than the supreme law of the land.
Convention isn't law.
Malaysia, having written/codified Constitution, was governed by constitutional supremacy.
The sovereignty of Parliament lasts five years.
No Parliament can be bound by previous Parliament, nor bind future Parliament.
DISCLAIMER: The views expressed in the Press Statement and Editor's Note and Footnote do not necessarily represent those of the Center for Policy Initiatives (CPI).
