The aftermath of the recent Malaysian elections threw up a legal quandary in one of the states. That state's constitution requires the Mentri Besar to be a Malay Muslim. However the party winning the largest number of seats in the state legislature is Chinese based. So the Chief Minister will have to be chosen from one of the smaller parties.
The Brunei Constitution also imposes such a requirement in respect of certain office. Clause 5 of Article 4 states "Ministers and Deputy Ministers shall be from among the Malay race professing the Islamic religion, save where His Majesty otherwise decides". We have of course one Chinese Minister in the cabinet.
And there's more. Certain office requires the holder to be a citizen of Brunei Darussalam of the Malay race professing the Islamic Religion. The list includes the Auditor General, Clerk to the Privy Council, Clerk to the Legislative Council, Chief Syar’ie Judge, Mufti Kerajaan, Attorney General, Chairman of the Public Service Commission, Yang Di-Pertua Adat Istiadat, Speaker of the Legislative Council and Secretary to the Council of Ministers.
2 comments:
How about gender specific posts? Are there any parts of the law that state a requirement that only a male may occupy?
The law requires a Sultan to be male. Otherwise there appears to be no gender restrictions for other posts.
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