Chapter 7

History and Context of Public

Administration in Malaysia

7.1 Introduction

This chapter provides the history and context of public administration in Malaysia. The central theme here is that while the civil service was fairly professional and representative at the time of independence, after the 1969 riots new political realities caused the civil service to become dominated by the Malay community. The leading Malay party, UMNO, assumed a pre-eminent place in the political system and began to control the state and all of the state apparatus.

7.2 Setting and Context

Malaysia is a federation of 13 states, 11 on the peninsula and 2 on Borneo Island. Malaya, as the peninsula is known, gained independence from the British in 1957. In 1961, Tunku Abdul Rahman, the

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then Malayan prime minister, suggested a federation comprising Singapore, Malaya, Brunei, Sabah (then called British North Borneo), and Sarawak. In other words, he suggested merging all the British enclaves in Southeast Asia into a single political unit. After much discussion, the federation came into being in September 1963. Brunei, rich in oil resources, refused to join the federation at the last minute. Two years later, serious disagreements between Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew and Tunku saw the island state becoming an independent state.1

The Federation of Malaysia is a constitutional monarchy. The head of state is the Yang diPertuan Agong, or king of Malaysia. The Yang di-Pertuan Agong is elected for a 5-year term among the nine hereditary sultans of the Malay states, all situated on the peninsula. The other states are ruled by a Yang di-Pertua Negeri or governor. The bicameral parliament consists of the lower house, the Dewan Rakyat or House of Representatives, and the upper house, the Dewan Negara or Senate. Members of the lower house are elected from single-member constituencies, serving for a maximum of 5 years. Like the British prime minister, the Malaysian prime minister can seek to dissolve Parliament anytime within the 5 years and call for fresh elections. Members of the Senate are indirectly elected through a complex formula for a 3-year term; 26 are elected by the 13 state assemblies, 2 representing the federal territory of Kuala Lumpur, 1 each from the federal territories of Labuan and Putrajaya, and 40 are appointed by the king. Besides the federal parliament, each state has a unicameral state legislative chamber.

The executive part of the government is governed by a prime minister and cabinet members are selected from the ranks of Parliament. Although, in theory, power lies with Parliament and the written constitution, in practice, the executive dominates the entire political process [2]. Since independence in 1957, Malaysia has been governed uninterrupted by a coalition known as the Barisan Nasional (BN) or National Front.2 This coalition is made up of political parties that represent all the major ethnic groups in the country. In the past decade, the coalition had 14 coalition parties.

The Federal Constitution (Article 132) defines “Public Service” as consisting of: (i) General Public Service of the Federation; (ii) Public Service of the States; (iii) Joint Public Service; (iv) Education Service; (v) Judicial and Legal Service; (vi) police force; and (vii) armed forces. This chapter refers to people who work in all branches except those in the police and armed forces. The civil service in Malaysia is further divided into the federal and state civil service. Six states (Kelantan, Kedah, Terengganu, Johor, Sabah, and Sarawak) have their own state service, while all other states and the federal government rely on the federal civil service. This dividing line, however, is more in theory than in practice since there is close integration and cooperation between the six state civil services and the federal service. Officers are regularly seconded to each other and many issues, such as development projects, are dealt with collectively. The existence of the six state civil services is due more to historical circumstances rather than deliberate design. The key difference between the federal and state civil service is simply who bureaucrats report to. The federal civil service reports ultimately to the prime minister while the state service reports to the chief minister or menteri besar of the state concerned.

To understand the formation of the Malaysian civil service requires an understanding of the period just prior to independence and the demography of the country. Malaysia if often referred to as a plural society. There are three major ethnic groups—the Malays, Chinese, and Indians. There are also many indigenous tribal groups found mostly in Sabah and Sarawak. Each of the three major groups has their own language, faith, and customs. Ethnic tensions in the political

1Singapore wanted a meritocracy-based political system—what Lee referred to as “Malaysian Malaysia” while Tunku wanted Malay dominance [1].

2 The BN was previously known as the Alliance.

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History and Context of Public Administration in Malaysia 143

system exist as each group seeks to gain an advantage over the other. At the time of independence, the Malay constituted about half the population, the Chinese 35%, and the Indians about 11%. In 2007, the Malays and other bumiputeras (indigenous groups) constituted about 62% of the 27 million population, the Chinese 24%, and Indians 8%.

Malaya gained independence in 1957 through negotiations with its colonial master, the United Kingdom. These negotiations were led by Tunku Abdul Rahman, leader of the Alliance, a coalition of three political parties—United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), the Malayan Chinese Association (MCA), and the Malayan Indian Congress (MIC).3 As their names suggest, these three parties represented the three dominant ethnic groups in Malaysia—the Malays, Chinese, and Indians. While the Malays are indigenous, the Chinese and Indians were brought to Malaya in large numbers during the colonial era primarily for economic reasons. The British wanted them to help expand the Malayan economy, especially in the tin mining and rubber industries. Most of them came in the nineteenth century and by the time of independence in 1957, they (Chinese and Indians) constituted about half the population.

Because the British brought in the Chinese and Indians for economic reasons, there was no real attempt to integrate them into the local environment—the thinking then was that these were temporary workers and they would go back to China and India once they have saved up enough money for retirement. In reality, with such large numbers, this was not possible. Many did not earn enough to go back to the Chinese mainland or India. The large numbers also allowed the Chinese and Indian communities to build their own insular communities—they established their own schools, temples, and townships. The British were also keen to keep the communities apart as it was easier to rule over them [3].

The British concentrated on building a civil service to fit their economic and empire needs while, at the same time, trying their best to co-opt the indigenous leadership—in this case, the Malay sultans and their senior officials. Through a mixture of strong-arm tactics, bribery, and promises of economic development, the British managed to convince the sultans to install a British “advisor” to help them rule their states. These “advisors”—far from offering suggestions—often ended up as the chief administrators, yielding real power in the name of the sultan. The only area where the advisors did not interfere was on the issues of Malay customs and religion—Islam. As part of their political ploy to win over the elite Malays, a Malay administrative service (MAS) was established in the 1930s [4]. The MAS was junior to the Malayan civil service (MCS), which was, in practice, reserved mainly for whites. Those few Malays who did manage to move from the MAS to MCS ended up as junior MCS officers. In other words, while selected Malays were co-opted into the civil service, at the higher levels of the MCS, the British were always in charge. Having Malays working in the bureaucracy helped to legitimize British rule.

Thus, the first group of Malays actively recruited to the MAS tended to be members of the Malay aristocracy and children of Malay chiefs. Many were sent to study at the elite Malay College Kuala Kangsar (MCKK) established in 1905.4 One writer observed that the MCKK was for “the training of Malays boys for admission to certain branches of government service [5].” As a result of bringing them into the civil service and making sure that most would never be at the most senior levels, within a short period, the Malay elite saw the British not only as their protector, but also their benefactor. The unintended consequence of this policy of luring the Malay elite into the civil service meant that the Chinese and Indian population moved into commerce and the non-government sector. As the

3After 1963, these parties were called the Malaysian Chinese Association and Malaysian Indian Congress to reflect the name of the new federation.

4 MCKK was often described as being modeled on Eton.

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144 Public Administration in Southeast Asia

Chinese and Indians began to dominate the private sector, the Malay elite began to move even closer to the colonial officials, fearing domination by the non-Malays.

Although the British were selective in the recruitment of Malayans into the MAS and MCS, this did not mean that the white officers who served in Malaya were less professional than the home service in the United Kingdom. By and large, many of the white officers who served in Malaya were highly experienced, some having served in British colonies in Africa and the Indian subcontinent. Some were recruited directly from British universities. The MAS was generally corrupt-free and there was a strong respect for administrative law. The MAS believed in developing the Malayan economy, thus schools (mostly manned by missionaries), hospitals, roads, airports, and other infrastructure, were built. The belief was that a strong Malayan economy would contribute to the home country and the British Empire. However, there was a common belief among senior officials that the whites were still superior to the “natives” and all the top posts had to be reserved for the whites; racism was common during the era. The other negative legacy of the colonial era civil service was the deliberate exclusion of the Chinese and Indians from the civil service. Although a very small number were recruited, the prevalent thinking among the British was that these immigrants had no future in Malaya and would one day return to China and India.

7.3Malayan Union and the Birth of the United Malays National Organization

The myth that the British were invincible was shattered when Japan invaded Malay in 1941 and quickly overran it. The Malays and the other people realized that Britain and white people were not superior to the non-whites. The four years under Japanese occupation left an important impression among the Malay leaders that perhaps the British could be challenged after all. The first big challenge to the British came after the war when the British suggested the “Malayan Union” proposal.

The Malayan Union (MU) was a confederation of the Malay states and the Straits Settlements (excluding Singapore), which was placed as a crown colony under direct British rule from London. The British proposed this arrangement because it was the easiest way to consolidate their rule over the Malay Peninsula after the war. It was proclaimed on April 1, 1946, by the British despite strong opposition from the Malay elite. The Malay elite were against the MU because (a) citizenship with equal rights was granted to all residents of Malaya, including the Chinese and Indians who make up slightly more than half the population; (b) citizenship was based on the jus soli (place of birth) principle; and (c) power was transferred from the sultan to a British governor, except in matters of culture and Islam [6].

The Malay opposition was led by Malay civil servants. On March 1, 1946, Dato’ Onn Jaafar, a civil servant from Johor, established the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) expressly to oppose the formation of the MU. Seven of the 11 members of the first UMNO Executive Committee were civil servants.5 Onn Jafaar and his followers were so effective in their opposition to the MU that the British dropped the MU completely two years later in January 1948. Hence, from day one of UMNO, a political party had close and intimate links with the civil service and, by extension, the British colonial authorities. The civil service, then and now, was a place for Malay

5 For details on UMNO’s formation [7].

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