THE PARLIAMENTARY SYSTEM

(ACCORDING TO THE PRACTICE IN

MALAYSIA)
 TABLE OF CONTENT
1) DEF IN ITIO N O F PARLIA MENTARY SY STE M

2) FEA TU RES OF PARL IA MEN TARY SY STEM

2.1) CONCEPT OF HEAD OF STATE AND HEAD OF GOVERNMENT

2.2) FUSION OF POWER
2.3) THE METHOD OF ELECTION OF THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE AND
APPOINTMENT OF THE CABINET MINISTER
2.4) DISMISSAL OF GOVERNMENT
2.5) THE PRINCIPLE OF COLLECTIVE RESPONSIBILITY AND INDIVIDUAL
RESPONSIBILITY.

3) A DVANTAGES O F PARL IA MEN TARY SY STE M

4) C RITIS M O N PARLIA MENTARY S YSTE M

5) C ONCLUSIO N
 DEFINITION OF
PARLIAMENTARY SYSTEM

Parliamentary system can be

defined as representative system
that features FUSION OF POWER
rather than SEPARATION OF POWER
between the executive and
legislative institutions and power.
FEATURES OF PARLIAMENTARY
SYSTEM
CONCEPT OF HEAD OF STATE AND HEAD OF GOVERNMENT

vthe YDPA is the Head of State in Malaysia.

vthe Head of State is a nominal position. Its mean that the power

of the head of state is limited and just a symbolic.

vHis Royal Highness has the power to safeguard the customs

and traditions of the Malay people and the Administration of the

Islamic Religion in each state.

ØThe head of state may have reserve powers which are usable in a

crisis. It is stated under the Proclamation of Emergency that is

under clause (1) of article 150 of the Constitution which states:

“if the Yang di-Pertuan Agong is satisfied that a grave

emergency exist whereby the security or economic life of the

federation or of any part thereof is threatened, he may issue

Proclamation of Emergency.

ØHowever in most cases such powers are either by convention or

by constitutional rule only exercised upon the advise & approval of

the head of government.

ØMeanwhile the head of government is the one who has the real

power that is exercised the executive power in reality.

 FUSION OF POWER
vThere is the concentration of all power in the parliament.

vIts mean that, there is fusion of power between the executive

and legislature branch.

vIts lead to a different set of checks and balances (various

procedural rules that allow one branch to limit another)

vThe cabinet minister is the members of parliament and also the

political executive

vAccording to the Article 43 of the Constitution, members of the

Cabinet can only be selected from members of either houses of

Parliament.

vThis mean that, the Executive (Members of Cabinet) is also the

Legislative (Members of Parliament).

 THE METHOD OF ELECTION
OF THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE
1) The executive is typically a cabinet, and headed by prime

minister who is considered the head of government.

2) He is being choose in the indirect election.

3) The monarch still appoints the PM after of general election,

although in reality he is always the leader of majority party in

the parliament.

4) The term of his appointment is 5 year.

5) But if his party win the elections once again, then he can hold

his or her office as long as the “confidence of the house” is

maintained.
6) For example:

The former prime minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamadhas

hold the position for about 22 years because his party has

been won the election and the “confidence of the house” is

maintained.

8) Formally, the Yang di-Pertua Agong appoints all ministers on the

advice of the Prime Minister, which he is obliged to follow. They

are always from the members of the ruling party.

9) Members of the Cabinet are typically appointed from the lower

house of Parliament, the Dewan Rakyat.

10)The cabinet minister can be reshuffle or reappoint. For

example:

Before this, the Minister of Defense is Datuk Seri Najib

 DISMISSAL OF GOVERNMENT
üCan be done through the no-confident vote among the members

of parliament.

üThis can be particularly dangerous to a government when there

are simple majority of seats, in which case a new election is often

called shortly thereafter.

üIts happen because of there is no more confident in the way of

the PM’s govern or when the people want to form new

government.

üThe member’s of parliament will vote among themselves

although they’re the member’s of the ruling party.

üBut all the decision must go through the monarch.

THE PRINCIPLE OF COLLECTIVE RESPONSIBILITY AND INDIVIDUAL
RESPONSIBILITY

üThe individual responsibility is for Minister to Parliament and the

collective responsibility is for the Cabinet of Parliament.

üIndividual responsibility requires that each minister be

accountable to parliament for the conduct of his department. The

minister must be responsible to parliament for every act or

neglect of his department and cannot escape responsibility by

blaming his civil servants.

üIn cases where the appears to be gross negligence of duty or

mismanagement of public funds, Parliament may censure the

Minister and force him to resign from his post as Minister.

üCollective responsibility requires that all Ministers be jointly

responsible as a team to Parliament. This means that individual

minister may not in public express views that contradict or criticize

government policy nor may they vote against government policy.

üThe cabinet minister will have their own meeting before the

parliamentary meeting.

üIn the cabinet meeting, the ministers can argued about any

misunderstanding but they cannot argue in parliamentary

meeting. If its happen, they will faced the disciplinary act.

üIf a vote of no-confident against the government is carried in

parliament. The whole cabinet must resign.

 ADVANTAGES OF
PARLIAMENTARY SYSTEM
qThe ministries are in constant touch with legislature, where the

opposition party review every policy of the government carefully.

It means that, government will be alert to what is good to the

country because the opposition will give their feedback on

every government policy.

qThe government cannot be despotic.

Ex: the government cannot adopt a policy which will be disliked

by the public because when the confidence of public decrease

then the government can be dissolve.

CRITISM ON PARLIAMENTARY
SYSTEM
qThe life of executive post is uncertain because at any time there

could be a vote of no confidence in which case the executive has to

resign. So, it is difficult to adopt any long term and consistent

policy.

qThe government will always adopt a policy that will be benefit

the party and its supporters. The policy might unbeneficial to the

opposition party and its supporters.

qThe head of government is in almost all cases not directly elected

not like in the Presidential System.

 CONCLUSION
Lastly, based on all of the above explanations and examples, we

can conclude that, as a multi-racial country, the parliamentary

system that has been practiced in Malaysia can be consider as

practicable because the power of Monarch is still exist although

it just a nominal power. Besides that, the present government

will do anything to gain support from people. This means, the

peoples’ welfare will not be abundant.