Reported by:
Tan Ginny SR3B
These years, the topics of rapid political developments and the change in the federal government has become a popular one amongst the people of Malaysia. Unfortunately, while these happenings have sparked much controversy and discussion, the younger generation, especially the students, have shown little to no interest as to how events like these might impact their future.
As such, the Academic Department of Kuen Cheng High School has decided to host some seminars on civic education tailored for the Senior Middle Three students, who will be able to vote for their desired government this year following the implementation of UNDI18 in 2021, the law to lower the voting age from 21 to 18. There were a total of two such seminars currently, the first held on 16th April 2022 and the second on 21st May 2022.
The bright morning of 21st May 2022 opened with a lively introduction from the host, Mr Chia Choon Han. Soon thereafter, Mr Walter Chou, the speaker of today’s seminar started his show with much welcome from the students.
As a continuation of his last session with us, he started off with an explanation about the power balance in Malaysia and how Montesquieu’s theory stressed that the three organs of government must have a defined area of power. He mentioned that in Malaysia, the separation of powers between the Legislative, Judiciary and Executive is clearly expressed in the Constitution. However, in Malaysia, the power overlaps between the legislative and executive.
In his talk, Mr Chou stressed that Malaysia has a system of parliamentary democracy. Our politics take the framework of a federal representative democratic constitutional monarchy, in which our Yang di-Pertuan Agong heads the state and a Prime Minister heads the government. We have a Parliament that debates over our Constitution, Cabinet that heads matters of the country, and a Federal Court that carries out the Law.
Then he moved on to speaking about the importance of voting. According to him, the votes of the people are a way for the ruling class to hear the voices of the people and a way to balance out power to prevent a dictator from rising to power. It also makes the politics of the country fair to all.
Mr Chou further explained that the House of Representatives (Dewan Rakyat in Malay) are the officials chosen by the people through voting, who go on to form a government that speaks for the people. He also mentioned that the House of Representatives is run by various governmental departments, where their powers overlap. The legislative and executive powers are shared between the two parties.
After that, Mr Chou posed a question to the students online: How do we view the political change of 2020? During 2020, our previous Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohammad resigned, which led to the overturning of Pakatan Harapan and the return of Barisan Nasional. This topic led him to speak of the powers granted by the Constitution to various parties, which includes how the power of Yang di-Pertuan Agong balances out that of the Prime Minister.
