NILAI: The Yang Dipertuan Besar of Negri Sembilan, Tuanku Muhriz Ibni Almarhum Tuanku Munawir, today officiated the “Federalism in Malaysia: Redefining the Federal-State Relationship in Malaysia” conference, here.
Also present were the Tunku Ampuan Besar of Negri Sembilan Tuanku Aishah Rohani Almarhum Tengku Besar Mahmud and their sons, the Tunku Besar of Seri Menanti, Tunku Ali Redhauddin and Tunku Zain Al-’Abidin.
Also present were Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Aminuddin Harun, Chief Justice Datuk Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat and Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Ir Amiruddin Hamzah.
In his speech, Tuanku Muhriz said the people should subscribe to the principle of subsidiarity where the localisation of authority allows state governments to respond to local concerns more effectively.
“Though loyal to our Federation, we must not end up with Federal parochialism.
“Thus, we need to explore whether there is a proper balance between the right of individual states to pursue their own objectives and national interests — and this relates to the determination of who or which body are the approving authorities,” he said in his royal keynote address at the conference.
Tuanku Muhriz added the subject of fiscal decentralisation needs to be explored as well as increasing the avenues of direct income for the states to enable them carry out their projects.
“I hope this conference will achieve assessing the objectives of federalism which have been carried out in the last 60 years and the steps to be taken moving forward,” he said.
The two-day conference is being held at Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia to encourage further understanding and discourse, and to enable the present generation of Malaysians to appreciate the vision of the country’s founding fathers and the relevance of federalism in the present-day environment.
The key speakers of the conference are Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs founding president Tunku Zain and retired Court of Appeal Judge Datuk Seri Hishamudin Yunus.
Meanwhile, the organising committee chairman S. Saravana Kumar said there are six specially designed sessions in this conference in which session one and two will discuss the concept of federalism from two aspects at the national level and from the historical context of Negri Sembilan.
“Session three aims to highlight the current governance issues that we face as a result of an overly strong central government with session four probing on conflict management and inter-state relations, while session 5 will examine the future of federalism by discussing steps that our political leaders should consider and session six will provide insights from the experience of federalism from other jurisdictions. — Bernama
