SOCIAL COTRACT.

MUHAMMAD ALIF BIN CHE ALI 122148 GROUP 365

When talking about social contract, first of all we must know the definition of
social and contract and also what is social contract all about. In oxford dictionary
describes that social is something that related to society and its organization and it also
connected with your position in society. Next, contract is a written agreement intended to
be legally binding and provide you with a service. Therefore social contract is an
unspoken agreement among members of society to behave in a way that benefits
everybody. An example for social contract is giving up some individual freedom in return
for state protection.

Now, I would like to discuss regarding social contract in Malaysia. Social contract
in Malaysia may refers to the agreement made by the country's founding fathers in the
Constitution, and usually refers to a quid pro quo through article 14 to 18 of the Federal
Constitution, pertaining to the granting of citizenship to the Non-Malay and also in article
153 which grants the Malays special rights and privileges. Besides that, Malaysian social
contract has been a subject of controversy because any debate about it touches on the
special of the bumiputera.

The social contract in Malaysia existed when Lord Reid came to Malaysia. He is
the one who drafted the Constitution for Independence of Malaya between UMNO, MIC
and MCA. At first MIC did not want to unite with UMNO and MCA. Even though
UMNO is the party for Malays and MCA is a party for Chinese, but UMNO also claims
some privileges to Malay but MCA still want to unite with UMNO because MCA knew
that Malays special rights should be protected. UMNO also promised to the Non-
Malays and Chinese that they will grant easier citizenship by jus soli.



Furthermore, the Reid Commission draft the proposal and it was published it in
1957. It reviewed and amended by the Malay rulers, representative of alliance and British
government in meeting in London. The Social Contract 1948 form the basis of the
Federation of Malaya 1948. In addition to that, the Non-Malays was given the right of
citizenship based on the principle of jus soli with the loose and waiver of the language
requirement. Apart from that, the Malays rights and special privileges were provided and
mentioned in the constitution which are the importance of Islamic religion as their main
religion, the Malay language as their main or the countrys main language, the special
position of the Malays and the positions of the Malay rulers.

In Malaysian Federal Constitution, there is several articles that related to social
contract. Firstly is article 3. It discusses about Islam is the religion of federation. The
government have right to maintain and support the necessity of Islamic institutions. This
article should be amended because Islam has been accepted since Malacca Sultanate and
also during British administration and also Islamic law has been practiced in all of the
Malay states since before the British occupation. Never the less, Islam also give freedom
for Non-Muslim to practice their own religion and belief. It is clearly seen here, in Article
2(1) which talked about a person is free to profess and practice his own religion and
Article 2(4) said that no person can propagate Muslim to convert to other religion but at
the same time Muslim can propagate Non-Muslim to convert to Islam and Non-Muslim
can propagate others except Muslim to convert to their religion.




Next, Ill be elaborating about Article 152. The things that are mentioned in
Article 152 is the national language which is Bahasa Melayu. No one is prohibited from
using, teach or learn any other language even though Bahasa Melayu is the national
language. The reason why do this article is enacted in Federal Constitution because to
unite people from all races. Besides that it is also easy to learn. Next, article 153 also
related to social contract. In this article, it talks about the special position of the Malays
and natives people in Sabah and Sarawak. Government implement policies to preserve
the special position in public service, business, scholarship, education and others. In this
cases, Malay people accept the principle of jus soli and Non-Malay MUST accept the
special privileges of the Malays.

Before this, I have mentioned about controversy that happen because of the
special rights of Bumiputera. Let me enlightened you for what had happened, Our
government gave scholarship policy for bumiputera and housing price reduction for
bumiputera which is 7% discount of a house. Besides that, our government also gave
FELDA and quotas favoring bumiputera in public service. All of this matters, because
these are the special privileges of the Malays. These privileges made Lee Kuan Yew
questioned the need for article 153 Federal Constitution, called for Malaysian Malaysia.
In 1965, he questioned the implementation of Malays rights as proposed. It was really
upsetting the politicians from alliance. In 2005, Lim Keng Yaik asked for re-examination
of the social contract so that a " Bangsa Malaysia" can be achieved. It heavily criticized
by many Malay politicians such as Khairy Jamaluddin and Ahmad Shabery Cheek. At the
end, Lim stated that the Malay press had blown his comments out of proportion and
misquoted him. The issue ended with UMNO Youth Chief and Education Minister
Hishamuddin Hussein warning people not to bring up the issue again as it has been
agreed upon, appreciated, understood and endorsed by the Constitution. Besides,
Hishamuddin had waved the keris at the UMNO Annual General Meeting, warning Non-
Malay should not and must not to threaten the "Malay rights" and to question the social
contract.

Next, New Economic Policy also the main controversy that happen in Social
Contract in Malaysia. Anwar Ibrahim said that he promised to roll back the NEP while
the DAP said they will against NEP. Why this problem happen? It is because NEP
benefitting only a small portion of Malays, mostly well-connected and urban.
Furthermore, they're ignoring the rural and poor Malays. Not just that problem, besides,
Lim Kit Siang and Karpal Singh also questioned the Malay privileges which is ISA. Then
members of Indian Community demonstrated for Hindu rights and protested that their
community has been worse off than the Malays. In the late 2007, 5 members of Hindraf
were detained under ISA, 12 was arrested. In 2008, the Indian community objected the
arrest. Tuan Guru Datuk Nik Aziz said bumiputera is racist and the policy prevented
other races from receiving government aid. Apart from that, Non Malays feel as they are
continually being treated as a 2nd citizenship even they are born and raised locally.
Besides that, there is also the about university quota which known as meritocracy
system being criticized by Non-Malay. They criticized the policy as it benefiting the
Bumiputera by streaming them into matriculation programme which provide an easy
coursework while they had to sit for STPM. According to the MCA Youth leader Datuk
Dr. Wee Ka Siong the STPM is a well-tested, open and standardized system with external
moderation and affiliated with the Cambridge Local Examination Syndicate, while
American-based matriculation system is a totally different creature altogether, with
evaluations based not just on the final examination but on attendance, assignment,
presentation and with lecturers having a greater say in determining the grades. So it is
easier for Malay to get a good grades than Non-Malays. Even the Non-Bumiputeras may
enter the matriculation programme and vice versa, this is rarely happened. Apart from
that, Meritocracy was also criticized by some quarters in UMNO as being discriminatory,
as it caused the rural and less- prepared Malays to fall behind in university entrance rates.




In conclusion, i think Social Contract should be revised because we cant
use the same way forever. First of all, we should see what happened to the social
contract we have used about 50 years right now. There were a lot of criticition,
dissatisfaction and rebellion. Even though the social contract made our country to
get independence but we must remain our country peacefully. One way to
maintain our country peacefully are with the revised our social contract. This is
because Malaysian citizens nowadays are different in their own ways of thinking.
They want equality and justice. What should our government do is every citizen
should have equal rights because they live, born, raised in the same country. Some
of the Non-Malay are also involve to make Malaysia in the same level of other
top rising countries such as, Dato Nicol Anne Davids, Dato Lee Chong Wei,
Michelle Yeoh and others. Thus, I am totally agree if our country want to revise
our social contract.