Bumiputera
An administrative and policy term, not a category the Federal Constitution defines. This page distinguishes that term from the words used in the Constitution.
- The word "Bumiputera" does not appear in the Federal Constitution, which does not define it as a single constitutional category.
- Article 153(1) states: “It shall be the responsibility of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to safeguard the special position of the Malays and natives of any of the States of Sabah and Sarawak and the legitimate interests of other communities in accordance with the provisions of this Article.”
- Article 153(2) provides for reservation, in “such proportion as he may deem reasonable”, of positions in the federal public service, scholarships and similar federal educational or training privileges, and permits or licences for a trade or business where federal law requires one.
- "Malay" is defined in Article 160(2) as a person who professes the religion of Islam, habitually speaks Malay and conforms to Malay custom, together with a birth or domicile condition tied to Merdeka Day. It is a legal definition, not an ethnic one alone.
- "Native" is defined separately in Article 161A(6), differently for each state: for Sarawak, a citizen belonging to one of the races listed in Article 161A(7) as indigenous to the state; for Sabah, a citizen who is the child or grandchild of a person of a race indigenous to Sabah, with a birth or paternal-domicile condition.
- The Orang Asli of Peninsular Malaysia are not among the groups named in Article 153. Article 8(5)(c) separately permits “any provision for the protection, well-being or advancement of the aboriginal peoples of the Malay Peninsula (including the reservation of land) or the reservation to aborigines of a reasonable proportion of suitable positions in the public service”.
- The 30% Bumiputera corporate equity target that features in most public argument comes from the New Economic Policy of 1971, not from the Constitution. The government's Twelfth Malaysia Plan records Bumiputera corporate equity ownership at 17.2% in 2019, against a population share of 69.3%.
Argued over contested
- Whether and how the policy framework should change is contested. The government's position, recorded in the Twelfth Malaysia Plan, is that the 30% equity target set in 1971 has not been met. This page records the legal framework and the official figures; it does not characterise the positions of supporters or critics where they have not been sourced comparably.
DUN
Dewan Undangan Negeri - state legislative assembly.
- DUN stands for Dewan Undangan Negeri, the State Legislative Assembly. Under the Eighth Schedule the Legislature of a State consists of the Ruler and one House, the Legislative Assembly, made up of elected members.
- A member of a DUN is an ADUN (Ahli Dewan Undangan Negeri).
- There are 587 state (DUN) constituencies in total, and the number per state varies widely — Perlis has 15, Sarawak has 82.
- A DUN has its own five-year term, separate from Parliament's. It continues for five years from its first sitting unless dissolved earlier, the Ruler may dissolve it, and a general election must follow within sixty days.
- A DUN can make laws only on matters in the State List (Ninth Schedule, List II) or the Concurrent List (List III). The State List covers Islamic law and Malay custom, land, agriculture and forestry, local government, other local services, and state works and water.
- Education (List I item 13) and medicine and health (List I item 14) are on the Federal List, subject to the exceptions stated there. Public health, social welfare, town and country planning, drainage and irrigation, and housing are on the Concurrent List, shared with the Federation.
- The Federal Territories of Kuala Lumpur, Labuan and Putrajaya have no DUN; all matters relating to them are on the Federal List.
- The Menteri Besar or Chief Minister is the member of the DUN whom the Ruler judges likely to command the confidence of a majority of its members, and the state Executive Council is collectively responsible to the DUN.
Argued over contested
- Sarawak's assembly has approved an increase from 82 to 99 seats, but the Election Commission has not confirmed the new constituencies, so the seat count that will apply at the next Sarawak state election is not yet settled.
GE / PRU
General Election / Pilihan Raya Umum.
- A general election (Pilihan Raya Umum) fills the elected seats of the Dewan Rakyat, which the Federal Constitution sets at 222 members.
- Parliament, unless dissolved sooner, continues for five years from the date of its first meeting and then stands dissolved.
- Once Parliament is dissolved, a general election must be held within sixty days, and the new Parliament must be summoned to meet no later than 120 days from the dissolution.
- State assembly (DUN) elections run on their own clocks: each Legislative Assembly continues for five years from its own first sitting, and its election must be held within sixty days of its dissolution.
- The Constitution does not name a seat threshold for forming a government. The Yang di-Pertuan Agong appoints as Prime Minister the member of the Dewan Rakyat who in his judgment is likely to command the confidence of the majority of its members; with 222 seats, that majority is 112.
- GE15 polling day was 19 November 2022, with nomination day on 5 November 2022.
- No coalition won 112 seats at GE15. Anwar Ibrahim was sworn in as the tenth Prime Minister on 24 November 2022, appointed under Articles 40(2)(a) and 43(2)(a), and formed a unity government.
- GE14 polling day was 9 May 2018, with nomination on 28 April 2018.
Argued over contested
- The date of the next general election cannot be stated in advance. Five years is a maximum, not a fixed interval, and Parliament may be dissolved sooner.
Katak / party-hopping
'Frog' - defecting legislator.
- In Malaysian political language, katak ("frog") is a pejorative term for an elected legislator who switches parties after an election.
- The Sheraton Move of February 2020 ended the Pakatan Harapan government: MPs including Bersatu and an Azmin Ali-led PKR faction withdrew support on 23 February 2020, Mahathir Mohamad resigned as Prime Minister on 24 February, and Muhyiddin Yassin was appointed on 29 February and sworn in as the eighth Prime Minister on 1 March 2020.
- The anti-hopping law is the Constitution (Amendment) (No. 3) Act 2022 (Act A1663), which inserted Article 49A into the Federal Constitution (and section 7A into the Eighth Schedule, for state assemblies). It received royal assent on 31 August 2022 and was gazetted on 6 September 2022.
- Article 49A came into force on 5 October 2022.
- Under Article 49A(1), an MP elected as a member of a political party loses the seat if they resign from, or otherwise cease to be a member of, that party; and an MP elected as an independent loses the seat if they later join a party. The seat becomes vacant on the date the Speaker establishes a casual vacancy.
- Article 49A(2) sets out three express carve-outs: the seat does not become vacant merely because the party is dissolved or its registration is cancelled, because the MP resigned from the party on being elected Speaker, or because the MP was expelled from the party.
- Article 49A makes loss of party membership, or an independent joining a party, the trigger. It does not itself make a seat vacant because an MP votes against the party or changes support while remaining a member, and it contains no separate trigger for a party changing its coalition alignment.
Argued over contested
- Whether Article 49A is strict enough is debated: critics point to the expulsion carve-out in Article 49A(2)(c), under which an MP who provokes expulsion keeps the seat. Some parties, including DAP and Amanah, have tried to close the gap by amending their own party constitutions so that a disobedient member automatically ceases to be a member rather than being expelled.
Kerajaan perpaduan
Unity government (post-GE15).
- GE15 was held on 19 November 2022 and produced a hung Parliament: no coalition reached the 112 seats needed for a majority in the 222-seat Dewan Rakyat. PH won 82 seats and PN 73.
- The Yang di-Pertuan Agong urged the parties and coalitions to consider forming a unity government to end the deadlock.
- Anwar Ibrahim was sworn in as Malaysia's 10th Prime Minister before the Yang di-Pertuan Agong at Istana Negara on 24 November 2022.
- The government he leads includes PH together with BN, GPS (Sarawak), GRS (Sabah), Warisan and other parties — parties that had campaigned against each other at GE15. The Prime Minister's Office listed Anwar as Prime Minister and these parties on the government side as of August 2026.
- Perikatan Nasional (which includes PAS) declined to join and became the opposition, naming Hamzah Zainudin as Opposition Leader in December 2022.
Argued over contested
- Whether the arrangement constrains PH's reform agenda is debated. Rahul Mishra of Universiti Malaya argued in December 2022 that Anwar's reform platform sat uneasily with UMNO/BN's Bumiputera politics and required continual balancing.
Manifesto / janji
Election promises and their legal status.
- A manifesto is a coalition's or party's written election platform setting out what it says it will do; at GE15 all three national coalitions (BN, PH, PN) issued one ahead of polling day, each a long list of policy offerings.
- *Janji* is the Malay word for a promise or pledge; parties use it in campaign branding, as in Perikatan's "Aku Janji" manifesto for the 2020 Sabah election.
- Manifesto promises are not legally enforceable in Malaysia. The Court of Appeal held in 2013, in a suit by single mothers against the Selangor state government and then-Menteri Besar Abdul Khalid Ibrahim over an unpaid allowance, that an election manifesto is not legally binding: it is a pledge made by a party before it is elected, and the party and the later government are separate bodies.
- Manifestos set out each coalition's policy stance, giving voters something concrete to compare.
Argued over contested
- Whether manifestos *should* be made legally binding is an open political argument. When the call was raised in 2025, politicians from both the government and the opposition rejected it — PKR's Fuziah Salleh said parties would simply be more careful with manifestos, and Bersatu's Wan Ahmad Fahysal argued voters can already oust a government that fails to deliver.
MB vs CM
Menteri Besar (states with a Ruler) vs Chief Minister.
- Nine states have a hereditary Malay Ruler — Johor, Kedah, Kelantan, Negeri Sembilan, Pahang, Perak, Perlis, Selangor and Terengganu. The other four — Melaka, Penang, Sabah and Sarawak — have a Yang di-Pertua Negeri instead.
- The head of a state government is called Menteri Besar in the states with a Ruler and Chief Minister (Ketua Menteri) in the others. The Federal Constitution treats the two titles as the same office: Article 160(2) defines "Chief Minister" and "Menteri Besar" as both meaning the president of the Executive Council in a State.
- Sarawak's head of government has been styled Premier, not Chief Minister, since 1 March 2022, when the state constitutional amendment took effect.
- The federal protocol department's official directory of state heads of government lists nine Menteri Besar (Johor, Kedah, Kelantan, Negeri Sembilan, Pahang, Perak, Perlis, Selangor, Terengganu), three Ketua Menteri (Melaka, Pulau Pinang, Sabah) and the Premier of Sarawak.
- In a state with a Ruler, the Ruler appoints as Menteri Besar the member of the Legislative Assembly who in his judgment is likely to command the confidence of a majority of the Assembly; if the Menteri Besar loses that confidence he must resign the Executive Council unless the Ruler dissolves the Assembly at his request. In the states without a Ruler the equivalent appointment is made by the Yang di-Pertua Negeri.
Still being researched
- How often do Rulers actually reject or remove a Menteri Besar they've appointed?
MP vs ADUN
Federal parliamentarian vs state assemblyperson.
- An MP (Ahli Parlimen) is one of the 222 elected members of the Dewan Rakyat, the federal House of Representatives.
- An ADUN (Ahli Dewan Undangan Negeri) is an elected member of a state's Dewan Undangan Negeri. There are 587 state constituencies in total.
- Both are called wakil rakyat; the difference is the level of government they sit at, and surveys suggest many voters do not distinguish them.
- Parliament may legislate on the Federal List and the Concurrent List; a State Legislature may legislate on the State List and the Concurrent List.
- The Federal List (Ninth Schedule, List I) includes external affairs, defence, internal security, civil and criminal law, finance, trade and industry, communications and transport, education (item 13), and medicine and health (item 14). These are an MP's subjects, not an ADUN's.
- The State List (Ninth Schedule, List II) covers Islamic law and Malay custom, land, agriculture and forestry, local government, other services of a local character, and state works and water. These are an ADUN's subjects.
- The Concurrent List (Ninth Schedule, List III) is shared by both and includes social welfare, town and country planning, public health and sanitation, drainage and irrigation, housing, and culture and sports.
- Most voters have both an MP and an ADUN, but voters in the Federal Territories of Kuala Lumpur, Labuan and Putrajaya have only an MP, because those territories have no state assembly and all matters relating to them are on the Federal List.
- The two are elected on separate clocks: Parliament and each State Legislative Assembly each run for up to five years from their own first meeting and are dissolved separately.
Argued over contested
- What voters expect of each differs from the formal division of powers: in one 2021 survey, respondents most often associated MPs with debating and making laws and ADUN with delivering cash or basic goods to constituents.
P code / N code
The Election Commission's numbering for constituencies: P for a federal parliamentary seat, N for a state assembly seat.
- In Election Commission materials, constituency codes written in the form P.001, P.104 and so on are listed under the heading "Parlimen", the Malay word for Parliament, and identify a federal parliamentary constituency. Parliament of Malaysia defines a parliamentary constituency as a geographical area represented by a parliamentary seat, whose boundary is determined by the Election Commission.
- The equivalent code for a state legislative assembly seat is written N.01, N.15 and so on. Election Commission lists label these seats DUN, for Dewan Undangan Negeri, and show the N codes grouped beneath the P constituency that contains them.
- There are 222 federal constituencies, which the Election Commission calls Bahagian Pilihan Raya Persekutuan. The current sequence begins at P.001 Padang Besar in Perlis and ends at P.222 Lawas in Sarawak.
- Official lists place the peninsular states first, then the Federal Territory of Labuan at P.166, then Sabah from P.167 Kudat to P.191 Kalabakan, then Sarawak from P.192 Mas Gading to P.222 Lawas. The last peninsular seat in the sequence is P.165 Tanjung Piai in Johor.
- One parliamentary constituency usually contains several state constituencies. In Perlis the Election Commission's current table places N.01 to N.05 under P.001 Padang Besar.
- Constituency boundaries are set by the Election Commission through the delimitation process in Article 113 and the Thirteenth Schedule of the Federal Constitution. A review may begin at least eight years after the previous one was completed, or earlier where a constitutional or state-law change alters the number of seats.
Argued over contested
- The codes are commonly described as running geographically from north to south down the peninsula before crossing to Borneo. The endpoints and the Johor to Labuan to Sabah to Sarawak order are confirmed by official lists, but no Election Commission source states a national numbering rule in those words, so this page does not present one.
Two-thirds majority
148 of 222 seats — the threshold for most, but not all, constitutional amendments.
- The Dewan Rakyat has 222 elected seats, so two-thirds of its total membership is 148.
- Article 159(3) requires a constitutional amendment Bill to be supported, at both its second and third readings, by the votes of not less than two-thirds of the total number of members of each House. The threshold counts total membership, not just members present.
- Not every amendment needs two-thirds. Article 159(4) exempts specified matters, which may be amended by an ordinary majority — including certain citizenship provisions, the Sixth Schedule on oaths and affirmations, and the Seventh Schedule on the election and retirement of senators.
- Some amendments need more than two-thirds. Article 159(5) additionally requires the consent of the Conference of Rulers for amendments to Article 10(4), any law passed under it, Part III, Articles 38, 63(4), 70, 71(1), 72(4), 152 and 153, and Article 159(5) itself.
- Article 161E separately requires the consent of the relevant Yang di-Pertua Negeri for amendments affecting specified Sabah or Sarawak matters.
- Article 62(3) provides that, unless the Constitution says otherwise, questions in either House are decided by a majority of members present and voting. Article 43(2)(a) instead says that the Prime Minister must be a Dewan Rakyat member who is likely to command the confidence of the majority of its members; it does not prescribe a fixed number of votes.
- No coalition has held two-thirds of the Dewan Rakyat since the 2008 general election, when Barisan Nasional was returned to government with 140 of 222 seats.
- A two-thirds vote can still be reached without one coalition holding two-thirds of the seats, by parties voting together. The constitutional anti-party-hopping amendment passed the Dewan Rakyat on 28 July 2022 with 209 votes in favour.
Argued over contested
- Whether the two-thirds threshold is set too high, making needed reform difficult, or is appropriately protective of constitutional stability, is a matter of political debate rather than settled law.