Constitution of Malaysia
Constitution of Malaysia
Ratified August 27, 1957
Authors Delegates of the Reid Commission
and later of the Cobbold
Commission
Purpose
Independence of Malaya in 1957
and formation of Malaysia in 1963
Malaysia
This article is part of the series:
Politics and government of
Malaysia
Government
• Constitution
• Social contract
• Human rights
Executive
• Yang di-Pertuan Agong
• Mizan Zainal Abidin
• Cabinet
• Prime Minister
• Najib Razak
• Deputy Prime Minister
• Muhyiddin Yassin
• Anti-Corruption Commission
Legislative
• Parliament
• Dewan Negara
• Dewan Rakyat
Judiciary
• Legal system
• Judiciary
Elections
• Elections
• Election Commission
• Political parties/alliances
• Barisan Nasional
• Pakatan Rakyat
• Opposition
• Last election
Foreign Policy
• Foreign relations
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• Constituent States
• State legislatures
• Federal Territories
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The Federal Constitution of Malaysia is
the supreme law of Malaysia. The 1957 Con-
stitution of the Federation of Malaya is the
basis of this document. It establishes Malay-
sia as a constitutional monarchy having the
Yang di-Pertuan Agong as the Head of State
whose roles are
largely ceremonial.
It
provides for the establishment and the organ-
ization of three main branches of the govern-
ment: the bicameral legislative branch called
the Parliament, which consists of the House
of Representatives and the Senate; the exec-
utive branch led by the Prime Minister and
consists of Cabinet Ministers; and the judicial
branch headed by the Federal Court.
The document also defines the rights and
responsibilities of the federal government,
the member states of the federation and the
citizens and their relations to each other. As
of early 2006, the number of individual
amendments to the constitution is estimated
to be about 650.
History
A constitutional conference was held in Lon-
don from 18 January to 6 February 1956 at-
tended by a delegation from the Federation
of Malaya, consisting of four representatives
of the Rulers,