In the midst of the PSD scholarships misgiving, we have to contend with NGOs linked to Umno such as Gaps and Perkasa who wilfully abuse the provisions of article 153 of the federal constitution to further their right-wing racist schema. Gaps in particular has the audacity to wholly misrepresent the Reid Commission’s views on article 153.

The Merdeka Constitution i.e. this country’s social contract, which came into being on 27 August 1957, is no longer in its original form. What we have is a constitution amended 650 times mostly during Mahathir’s 22 years in power. However, key amendments were also made post-May 1969.

The Reid Commission had recommended at the time that article 153 on the special position of the Malays and bumiputeras be reviewed after 15 years i.e. in 1972 and the appropriate legislature (Malaysian Parliament) “should then determine either to retain or to reduce any quota or to discontinue it entirely”.

Post-1969 with Parliament abrogated, the National Operations Council headed by Tun Abdul Razak proposed amendments to the Sedition Act making it illegal to question any matter with regard to article 153, thus rendering it a permanent feature of our federal constitution though that was not the intention of the Reid Commission.

Article 153 states that it is the responsibility of the king to safeguard the special position of the Malays and natives of any of the states of Sabah and Sarawak and the legitimate interests of the other communities. In this regard reservation/quotas for the Malays and other bumiputeras could be made in education and for permits and licences for business etc.

Gaps’ argument that only Malays are guaranteed higher-education sponsorship under article 153 is baseless on two counts:

1. It does not guarantee anything as quotas or reservation for the Malays can be varied by the government depending on circumstances of the time, and;

2. It protects the legitimate interest of the non-Malays in all areas including education.

Rights are inalienable but a (special) position can be altered. This distinction is never acknowledged by organisations like Gaps and Perkasa.   

It is in order for Barisan Nasional, in particular Umno, to organise a compulsory workshop on the federal constitution for their leadership and its NGO sympathisers lest, as the government of the day, they run this country deeper into an abyss of racism, ignorance and mediocrity.