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Article 150 of the Federal Constitution gives extraordinary powers to the Executive to act
when a state of emergency is declared. Any Act enacted under Article 150 need not be
consistent with all fundamental liberties except if it is related to the freedom of religion
(Article 150(6)(a)) and continues in force indefinitely until Parliament otherwise determines,
whether or not the circumstances giving rise to the emergency have terminated.
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As the consequence of this 1960 amendment,with regard to the actual use of emergency
powers in Malaysia, So far there are 4 Proclamations of Emergency. The 4 Proclamations of
Emergency are in respect of the Indonesian Confrontation (1964), the political crisis in
Sarawak (1966), the May 13 race riots (1969) and the political crisis in Kelantan (1977).
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All four Emergencies have now been revoked: the 1964 nationwide emergency was in effect
revoked by the Privy Council when it held that the 1969 nationwide emergency proclamation
had by implication revoked the 1964 emergency (see Teh Cheng Poh v P.P.) and the other
three were revoked under Art. 150(3) of the Constitution by resolutions of the Dewan Rakyat
and the Dewan Negara, in 2011. the move to annul the emergency proclamations was made
because the conditions, which threatened security and public order, then no longer existed.
in accordance to Clause (7) under Article 150 of the Federal Constitution, the emergency
proclamation would still be in effect for a period of six months from the date they are lifted.
The lifting of the proclamations will also prevent the government from enacting or passing
emergency laws under Article 150.
In the Constitution (Amendment) Act 1981, a new Clause (8) was inserted to Article 150,
which provides that the courts have no jurisdiction to entertain any application to challenge
any state of emergency proclaimed by His Majesty and any laws made there under thus all
questions concerning emergency powers would be left to the absolute discretion of the
Executive.
150(2B) the cheng poh v pp once parliament has sat, the executive power to make
laws laps.
150(6A)emergency law does not encroach into the areas in this article. Is this wide
Effect of laws made under proclamation of emergencyany ordinance will still have
Additional safeguards
since article 150 conferred a broad and extensive powers to the executive, I think the most
important, additional safeguard to this article is to curtail this power so as to avoid abuse of
power fundamental liberties. Clause (1) and (2) are both very wide provisions.
The obvious safeguard would be to revert to the pre-1960 position of a positive affirmationby Parliament within a stipulated time of the necessity, for an emergency. This conforms with
the United Kingdom and New Zealand models, the latter providing for emergencies of fixed
duration. These statutes mandate the Government to summon Parliament to ratify the
emergency if Par. liament was not sitting when the emergency was declared. The United
Kingdom provision requires that Parliament be summoned within five days whereas the New
Zealand statute provides for seven days. The New Zealand provision was tightened,
ironically at the same time as the Malaysian provision was loosened, to delete the
requirement previously existing of merely to communicate the Proclamation to Parliament at
the next ensuing session. It may be noticed the Malaysian law does not even carry the
requirement of laying the Proclamation before Parliament-at the next ensuing session. It is
left to the discretion of the Executive to bring the proclamation before Parliament at any
session of their choosing.