Prof Khoo performs constitutional magic

ARCHIVES 2010

By admin-s On Sep 8, 2010

khoo kay kim

By uppercaise

Where did Prof Khoo Kay Kim and Bernama suddenly acquire new powers to expand the Constitution and conjure up new constitutional requirements? It’s quite amazing. Suddenly the whole of Malay society is being roped in, far beyond what the Constitution itself requires.

Prof Khoo is a historian by trade. So far he’s not been listed by the Bar Council as the definitive authority on the constitution. Neither is Bernama, which is sometimes a news agency. Undeterred, the prof and Bernama together have pronounced that Article 153 cannot be removed unless the Malay community agreed.

“If Article 153 is to be amended or abolish, the Malays, as a whole, should first agree to it. If they feel that they are not ready for it, then it cannot be amended,” he said, according to the Bernama report.

But the Constitution itself says nothing of the kind about obtaining the prior agreement of the Malays and bumiputeras. The Malay version of Bernama’s report quotes Prof Khoo as going even further: there, he says the consent of all the Malays and bumiputeras is required.

“Kalau Perkara 153 perlu dipinda atau dihapuskan, keseluruhan orang Melayu mesti setuju, kalau orang Melayu rasa belum sedia untuk pinda, maka ia tidak boleh dipinda,” katanya.

Prof Khoo seems to be inventing a new law, and goes far beyond the Constitution.

What the charter does require is that the Conference of Rulers must approve of any changes to Article 153, and the Conference of Rulers must be consulted on policy changes that will affect administrative action under Article 153.

These two very specific requirements are spelled out in Articles 38 and 158.

Constitutional amendments of any kind all require a two-third majority vote. But, despite what the prof is quoted as saying, the consent of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong is not required for any law. The consent of the Conference of Rulers is required for laws involving Article 153, which Prof Khoo does not state. And no, the consent of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong is not required for any Bill to become law. The King merely assents to a Bill, or returns it to Parliament for another go, after which it becomes law anyway after 30 days.

Prof Khoo’s assertions thus appear to be only his own opinion of how things should be done but Bernama’s two versions give his opinions the force of authority, and place Prof Khoo squarely in the forefront of the Ketuanan Melayu agenda. This is especially when he expounds about ignorant people commenting on the Constitution:

He said society of today was “blind about history”. “They don’t understand (the constitution) and are ignorant of what they can or cannot do. There shouldn’t be any debate on the constitution because what is important is to follow what has been in use for so long,” he said.

So the prof clearly belongs to the closed-mind school of thought about the Constitution’s role in daily life, and how the general public should relate to a document that governs their everyday lives.