1. COMPARATIVE PUBLIC
ADMINISTRATION:
Malaysia, Indonesia and
the Philippines
Mohammad Faheem M. Aliuden, CE, MPA

2. Malaysia
• The British colonial power cobbled together an independent Federation of Malaya in 1957 from a
panoply of federated and unfederated kingdoms, sultanates, and directly governed colonies (Esman,
1972; Harper, 1999; Reid, 2010b). In 1963, the British also relinquished control over Sabah, Sarawak,
and Singapore which then received special status in exchange for joining the Malay federation.
Singapore left two years later. These special autonomous regions enjoy constitutional protection
against federal incursions in Islamic affairs, land policy, and local government, and they also have
broad policy competences including, crucially, control over immigration and citizenship.
• All Malaysian states have directly elected state assemblies and their representatives are included in
the upper chamber of the national parliament. Policy scope and fiscal decentralization are
constrained by extensive central economic planning, and have become increasingly so over the
decades (Loh, 2010). With the exceptions of Sabah and Sarawak, Malaysian states have limited self-
rule by comparison to federal units elsewhere (Watts, 2008).
• Shared rule is enhanced by region-based representation in the upper chamber of the national
legislature and through consultative National Councils which meet on a range of executive issues.
Regions can veto constitutional amendments by virtue of their blocking minority in the upper
chamber.
• Malaysia also has a lower intermediate tier of cities, districts and municipalities with two masters. On
behalf of the federal government, they are vehicles for urban planning and development, and fall
under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Housing and Local Government. On behalf of the state
governments, they execute a variety of policy tasks with limited territorial externalities. Until 1964
they had directly elected councils which elected the executive, but in 1965 elections were suspended
and since then state appointees sit on both councils and executives. Regional authority was further
reduced when the federal government brought major urban centers—Kuala Lumpur (1974), Labuan
(1984) and Putrajaya (2001)—under direct central control.

3. • Malaysia is a federal constitutional elective monarchy. The system of
government is closely modelled on that of the Westminster parliamentary
system, a legacy of British colonial rule. The head of state is the Yang di-
Pertuan Agong, commonly referred to as the king. The King is elected to a
five-year term by and from among the nine hereditary rulers of the Malay
states; the other four states, which have titular Governors, do not
participate in the selection. By informal agreement the position is
systematically rotated among the nine, and has been held by Abdul Halim of
Kedah since December 2011. The King's role has been largely ceremonial
since changes to the constitution in 1994, picking ministers and members of
the upper house.
• Legislative power is divided between federal and state legislatures. The
bicameral federal parliament consists of the lower house, the House of
Representatives and the upper house, the Senate. The 222-member House
of Representatives is elected for a maximum term of five years from single-
member constituencies. All 70 senators sit for three-year terms; 26 are
elected by the 13 state assemblies, and the remaining 44 are appointed by
the King upon the Prime Minister's recommendation. The parliament
follows a multi-party system and the government is elected through a first-
past-the-post system. Since independence Malaysia has been governed by a
multi-party coalition known as the Barisan Nasional.

4. • Each state has a unicameral State Legislative Assembly whose members are elected from
single-member constituencies. State governments are led by Chief Ministers, who are
state assembly members from the majority party in the assembly. In each of the states
with a hereditary ruler, the Chief Minister is required to be a Malay, appointed by the
ruler upon the recommendation of the Prime Minister. Parliamentary elections are held
at least once every five years, the most recent of which took place in March 2008.
Registered voters of age 21 and above may vote for the members of the House of
Representatives and, in most of the states, for the state legislative chamber. Voting is not
mandatory. Except for elections in Sarawak, all state elections are held concurrently with
the federal election.
• Executive power is vested in the Cabinet, led by the Prime Minister. The prime minister
must be a member of the house of representatives, who in the opinion of the King,
commands a majority in parliament. The cabinet is chosen from members of both houses
of Parliament. The Prime Minister is both the head of cabinet and the head of
government. The incumbent, Najib Razak, appointed in 2009, is the sixth prime minister.
• Malaysia's legal system is based on English Common Law. Although the judiciary is
theoretically independent, its independence has been called into question and the
appointment of judges lacks accountability and transparency. The highest court in the
judicial system is the Federal Court, followed by the Court of Appeal and two high courts,
one for Peninsular Malaysia and one for East Malaysia. Malaysia also has a special court
to hear cases brought by or against Royalty. Separate from the civil courts are the Shariah
Courts, which apply Shariah law to cases which involve Malaysian Muslims and run
parallel to the secular court system. The Internal Security Act allows detention without
trial, and the death penalty is in use for crimes such as drug trafficking.

5. • Race is a significant force in politics, and many political parties are
ethnically based. Actions such as the New Economic Policy and
the National Development Policy which superseded it, were
implemented to advance the standing of the bumiputera, consisting
of Malays and the indigenous tribes who are considered the
original inhabitants of Malaysia, over non-bumiputera such as
Malaysian Chinese and Malaysian Indians. These policies provide
preferential treatment to bumiputera in employment, education,
scholarships, business, and access to cheaper housing and assisted
savings. However, it has generated greater interethnic resentment.
There is ongoing debate over whether the laws and society of
Malaysia should reflect secular or Islamic principles. Islamic laws
passed by the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party in state legislative
assemblies have been blocked by the federal government.

6. Indonesia
• In its dying days, the Dutch colonial power had imposed a federal frame
whereby units broadly followed ethnic lines, but this structure was rejected by
the Indonesian independence movement. The Republic of Indonesia,
proclaimed in 1949, sought to establish a centralized unitary state (Bertrand,
2010). For the first fifteen years, provinsi and kabupaten/kota enjoyed
moderate self-government which included autonomous assemblies and
executives as well as limited policy scope, but the 1966 military coup by Suharto
clamped down on intermediate self-government, first through a series of
executive orders and interventions, and in 1974 by formally repealing
intermediate self- government (Bertrand, 2010; Reid, 2010a). In 1969, the
Indonesian army annexed Papua (previously called Irian Barat or Irian Jaya) and
in 1975 it annexed East Timor. Indonesia became a highly centralized state in
law and practice. The only special autonomy region able to maintain some self-
government was Yogyakarta, a small sultanate on the island of Java which had
achieved special status in 1950 in recognition of its longstanding anti-Dutch
resistance.
• After the fall of Suharto in 1998 and the ushering in of democracy, ‘one of the
world’s most ambitious decentralization policies’ (Malley, 2007: 7) transferred a
range of policy competences to directly elected district and provincial
legislatures (World Bank, 2003). Aceh (2001 extended in 2006) and Papua
(2001) gained concessions from the central government on resource allocation
and socio-cultural policies in the context of separatist pressures and violent
conflicts (Bertrand, 2007; Reid, 2010a; Stepan et al., 2011: 242-52). After a
referendum, East Timor became independent in 2002.

7. • All subnational units now have directly elected executives and assemblies
that exercise authoritative competences in at least two policy areas with
some capacity to tax and borrow. Aceh possesses additional powers over
local government, and while else where political parties are required to be
nation-wide, in Aceh local parties can contest local elections. Indonesian
provinsi also gained some shared rule with the creation of a directly
elected chamber based on the principle of equal provincial representation,
though this chamber’s legislative powers are limited. Provincial shared rule
does not extend to fiscal, executive or constitutional matters except in the
special autonomous regions.
• Indonesia is a republic with a presidential system. As a unitary state, power
is concentrated in the central government. Following the resignation of
President Suharto in 1998, Indonesian political and governmental
structures have undergone major reforms. Four amendments to the 1945
Constitution of Indonesia have revamped the executive, judicial,
and legislative branches. The president of Indonesia is the head of
state and head of government, commander-in-chief of the Indonesian
National Armed Forces, and the director of domestic governance, policy-
making, and foreign affairs. The president appoints a council of ministers,
who are not required to be elected members of the legislature. The 2004
presidential election was the first in which the people directly elected the
president and vice president. The president may serve a maximum of two
consecutive five-year terms.

8. • The highest representative body at national level is the People's
Consultative Assembly (MPR). Its main functions are supporting and
amending the constitution, inaugurating the president, and formalizing
broad outlines of state policy. It has the power to impeach the president.
The MPR comprises two houses; the People's Representative
Council (DPR), with 560 members, and the Regional Representative
Council (DPD), with 132 members. The DPR passes legislation and
monitors the executive branch; party-aligned members are elected for
five-year terms by proportional representation. Reforms since 1998 have
markedly increased the DPR's role in national governance. The DPD is a
new chamber for matters of regional management.
• Most civil disputes appear before a State Court (Pengadilan Negeri);
appeals are heard before the High Court (Pengadilan Tinggi). The Supreme
Court (Mahkamah Agung) is the country's highest court, and hears final
cessation appeals and conducts case reviews. Other courts include the
Commercial Court, which handles bankruptcy and insolvency; a State
Administrative Court (Pengadilan Tata Negara) to hear administrative law
cases against the government; a Constitutional Court (Mahkamah
Konstitusi) to hear disputes concerning legality of law, general elections,
dissolution of political parties, and the scope of authority of state
institutions; and a Religious Court (Pengadilan Agama) to deal with
codified Shariah Law cases.

9. The Philippines
• The Spanish and American colonial rulers of the Philippines etched a unified
subnational administration on top of fragmented traditional governance
(Hutchcroft, 2003). In the American period (1902-1920), a modern civilian
government was established with elected representation at the local and
provincial level, and this remains the foundation for Filipino subnational
administration. The Muslim areas in the south were united in a single Moro
province and local elites integrated into the political system. This laid the
groundwork for a separate Moro identity (Bertrand, 2010; McKenna, 1998).
• Provinces and independent cities—the two forms of intermediate government
we code in the Philippines—have been strong political entities with directly
elected councils and governors since independence in 1946, but they were
given limited policy and fiscal autonomy for the first four decades. As Eaton
(2001: 114) notes, ‘devolution consistently proved less attractive to national
politicians than deconcentration’ because it undermines national politicians’
ability to ‘negotiate fiscal transfers and pork-and-barrel projects with central
bureaucrats and then claim personal credit’. However, the 1991 reform
delegated considerable fiscal and borrowing autonomy to the provinces and
transformed them into resourceful agents of economic development (UN-
Habitat, 2011). In terms of self rule, Filipino provinces are now among the most
authoritative intermediary governments in Southeast Asia, with extensive
competencies in economic development, education, health, local government,
and residual power. They have the power to set rates on property tax and other
minor taxes, and the authority to borrow without prior central government
approval. Filipino provinces exert no shared rule.

10. • The Philippines has one special autonomous region: the
Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), created in
1979 under the authoritarian Marcos government in an attempt to
pacify armed secessionist rebellion. Initially it was endowed with
very limited autonomy, its territory clipped unilaterally by the
central government. Since 1989 a form of self-government has
been granted to a region whose boundaries were determined by
provincial-level plebiscites. Only five provinces joined, which falls
far short of the historical Moro homeland. In 2008, the central
government and the main liberation movement Moro Islamic
Liberation Front concluded a ‘Memorandum of Understanding on
Ancestral Domain’, which went a long way to meet claims on an
autonomous ‘Bangsamoro’ (Moro Nation), but the deal was
overturned by the Supreme Court (Bertrand, 2010; Kingsbury,
2011). The five-province region has its own regional assembly, a
regional cabinet headed by a directly elected governor and, in
addition to regular provincial competencies, it has authority over
shariah courts, shariah appellate courts, and tribal courts. The
Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao has limited shared rule:
the regional assembly can initiate amendments to the autonomy
statute, which then require confirmation in a popular referendum.

11. • The Philippines has a democratic government. It is a constitutional republic
with a presidential system. It is governed as a unitary state with the
exception of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao which is largely
free from the national government. There have been attempts to change
the government to a federal, unicameral, or parliamentary
government since the Ramos administration.
• The President functions as both head of state and head of government and
is the commander-in-chief of the armed forces. The president is elected by
popular vote for a single six-year term, during which he or she appoints and
presides over the cabinet. The bicameral Congress is composed of
the Senate, serving as the upper house, with members elected to a six-year
term, and the House of Representatives, serving as the lower house, with
members elected to a three-year term. The senators are elected at large
while the representatives are elected from both legislative districts and
through sectoral representation. The judicial power is vested in the Supreme
Court, composed of a Chief Justice as its presiding officer and
fourteen associate justices, all of whom are appointed by the President from
nominations submitted by the Judicial and Bar Council.