National Security and the Malaysian State: Freedom, State Power and the Constitution

Description

Using Malaysia as a case study, this book examines developments to key national security laws in the last decade and critically analyses the extent to which they embody law reform aimed at strengthening the rule of law and establishing a functional and inclusive democracy. Adopting a contextual approach that assesses these legal developments alongside the political transition and reawakening of civil society in Malaysia, the book documents how the notion of 'national security' has largely been conflated with 'regime security', and demonstrates that the new laws have in the main, failed to meet such rule of law and democratic aspirations. Tracing this failure to underlying problems in the Federal Constitution understood within the broader socio-political context, the book provides conceptual and practical lessons about the law and practice of national security in aspiring democracies. In proposing recommendations for more effective reform, the book offers an alternative vision of freedom, state power and the constitution in Malaysia.

Amber Tan is Assistant Lecturer at Monash University, Australia.