Article 153 of Malaysia¿s Constitution and the Human Right to Non-Discrimination

Research Paper (postgraduate) from the year 2010 in the subject Law - Public Law / Constitutional Law / Basic Rights, grade: A, The University of Western Australia, language: English, abstract: The Modern Malaysia is one of the pluralistic societies that comprise of communities of different ethnic, cultural and religious perspectives. The prevailing state of affairs is as a result of the British colonial social experiments. They happened between the 18th and 20th century during which a large number of the Chinese and Indian laborers were imported to the British Malaya. This is to enable the contribution of the labor force in the various plantations and mines. Prior to the British colonization in Malaysia, the population constituted of majorly the Malays, non-Malay natives and the Orang Asli as the aboriginal people. This is with Malays being the population constituting of the majority. However, as a result of the British colonists importation of foreigners as laborers in massive numbers Malaya, the population was fundamentally altered. Following the importation of the foreign laborers in larger numbers to Malaysia during the colonization, the population of the Malaysian community underwent an alteration that saw the Chinese formation of one-third the population and the Indians forming one tenth of the total population. Malaysia is known presently as one of the multi-ethnic and multi-religious societies with an underlying objective dictated through the provisions of the article 153 of the constitution. Malaysia is one of the global most recognized countries with a multi-religious and multi-ethnic perspective with provisions supporting racism written in the constitution. The Malaysian population constitutes of the Malays as the majority making up to 50.4% of the total population, Indian 7.1%, the Chinese with 23.7%, and the indigenous population up to 11%.