PERDANA DISCOURSE SERIES 20
Reflections on Federal – State
Relations in Malaysia
by Dr . Azeem Fazwan Ahmad Farouk , Director , Centre for Policy Research and International Studies , USM
The politics of federalism as practised in Malaysia has not received the kind of attention it deserves . Even when scholars had written on federalism in Malaysia , they had failed to reach a consensus on how to characterise it . Holzhausen ( 1974 ), for example , has claimed that Malaysia is a “ flawed federation ” and Loh ( 2010 ) is of the opinion that Malaysia ’ s federalism is “ very centralised ”. While the nature of federalism in Malaysia remains contested , scholars agree that Malaysia is not a true federation because the federal government holds too much power and dominates the political system to such an extent whereby it can determine the survival of the constituent states .
PERDANA MAGAZINE 2016 13