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.

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