# Article 153: What the Federal Constitution Actually Reserves, and What It Cannot Touch

> Article 153 of the Federal Constitution makes the Yang di-Pertuan Agong responsible for safeguarding the special position of the Malays and the natives of Sabah and Sarawak, and the legitimate interests of other communities, through discretionary quotas in the federal public service, scholarships, and trade permits or licences. This article sets out, clause by clause, what it reserves, what it explicitly cannot do, and how it is entrenched — reporting documented positions on it without adjudicating between them.

- Category: law
- Language: en
- Status: published
- Updated: 2026-07-24
- Canonical: https://negaraku.md/en/law/article-153-special-position

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Most summaries of Article 153 stop at one sentence: it protects "the special position of the Malays." Read the clause it comes from in full, and the sentence is doing something else — it names two duties in the same breath, to the same office, in the same clause.

Article 153(1) of the Federal Constitution states that it is 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." Both halves are in the operative sentence. Neither is a preamble to the other.

This article sets out, clause by clause, what Article 153 actually reserves, what its own later clauses explicitly stop it from doing, how it is entrenched against ordinary amendment, and how documented positions on it — from government and from legal commentary — describe its scope. It does not adjudicate between those positions.

## What it reserves — and how

Article 153(2) sets out three areas where the Yang di-Pertuan Agong may act to safeguard the special position:

| Area | What the text says |
| --- | --- |
| Federal public service | Reservation of "such proportion as he may deem reasonable" of positions — but only in the **federal** public service, not a state's |
| Scholarships and education | Reservation of a reasonable proportion of scholarships, exhibitions and similar educational or training privileges given by the Federal Government |
| Trade/business permits and licences | Where federal law requires a permit or licence to operate a trade or business, reservation of a reasonable proportion of those permits and licences |

Two things in that clause are easy to miss. First, the proportion is not fixed by the Article itself — it is whatever the Yang di-Pertuan Agong "may deem reasonable," exercised under Clause (3) through directions to the relevant Commission or licensing authority, which must "duly comply." Second, the public-service reservation is expressly federal only; it does not extend to a state's own public service under this clause.

Clause (8A), added later, extends a version of the same mechanism to university and college admissions: where an institution has fewer places than qualified candidates, the Yang di-Pertuan Agong may direct the reservation of a reasonable proportion of those places.

## The limits written into the same Article

Several of Article 153's own clauses exist to bound the three reservations above. Reported plainly, without characterisation:

- **Clause (4):** In exercising these functions, the Yang di-Pertuan Agong "shall not deprive any person of any public office held by him or of the continuance of any scholarship, exhibition or other educational or training privileges or special facilities enjoyed by him." An existing incumbent's office or scholarship cannot be taken away to make room for a quota.
- **Clause (5):** "This Article does not derogate from the provisions of Article 136." Article 136 itself states: "All persons of whatever race in the same grade in the service of the Federation shall, subject to the terms and conditions of their employment, be treated impartially." Article 153 sits alongside that requirement, not above it.
- **Clauses (6) and (7):** Where a trade/business permit or licence reservation is directed, nothing "shall operate to deprive... any person of any right, privilege, permit or licence accrued to or enjoyed or held by him," and a routine renewal, or a grant to the heirs, successors or assigns of a permit-holder, cannot be refused if it "might reasonably be expected in the ordinary course of events."
- **Clause (8):** Where Parliament itself legislates a licence reservation, the same protections apply by law: no deprivation of an existing right or licence; no refusal to renew or to transfer a licence with the business; and — for trades newly brought under a permit requirement — no refusal to license someone already bona fide carrying on that trade beforehand.
- **Clause (9):** "Nothing in this Article shall empower Parliament to restrict business or trade solely for the purpose of reservations" for Malays and natives of Sabah and Sarawak. The reservation power is not a general licence to restrict commerce.

Put together, the Article reserves a share of *new* opportunities going forward — it does not, by its own text, authorise clawing back what someone already holds, or displacing the impartial-treatment rule for federal employees already in service.

## Who it covers, in the Constitution's own definitions

Article 153 does not define "Malay" or "native" itself; those definitions sit elsewhere in the Constitution and are cross-referenced into it.

**Article 160(2)** defines "Malay" as a person who professes the religion of Islam, habitually speaks the Malay language, conforms to Malay custom, and either was born in the Federation or Singapore (or of a parent born there, or was domiciled there) before Merdeka Day, or is the issue of such a person.

**Article 161A(6) and (7)** defines "native," separately, for Sarawak and Sabah. For Sarawak, a native is a citizen belonging to one of a specific list of races the Constitution names as indigenous to the state (including, among others, Dusuns, Sea Dayaks, Land Dayaks, Kadayans, Kayans, Kenyahs, Melanaus, Muruts, Penans and Malays), or of mixed blood deriving exclusively from those races. For Sabah, a native is a citizen who is the child or grandchild of a person of a race indigenous to Sabah, born in Sabah or to a father domiciled there. These are two distinct tests, not a single "Bumiputera" definition applied uniformly across the federation.

For context on scale: the Department of Statistics Malaysia recorded the Bumiputera population — the broader statistical category that includes both groups above and others — at 21.6 million in 2024, a 1.1% increase on the prior year, according to DOSM's Bumiputera Statistics 2024 release.

## How it is entrenched

Article 153 is harder to amend, and harder to change in practice, than most of the Constitution:

- **Article 159(5)** requires that any law amending Article 152, Article 153, or several other listed provisions "shall not be passed without the consent of the Conference of Rulers" — on top of the two-thirds parliamentary majority Clause (3) of the same Article requires for constitutional amendments generally.
- **Article 38(5)** separately requires that "the Conference of Rulers shall be consulted before any change in policy affecting administrative action under Article 153 is made" — a consultation requirement distinct from, and narrower than, the consent requirement for formal amendment.
- **Article 10(4)**, inserted by Act A30 with effect from 10 March 1971 — in the aftermath of the 13 May 1969 racial disturbances, per the Journal of Governance and Integrity's account of the period — permits Parliament to pass laws prohibiting the questioning of "any matter, right, status, position, privilege, sovereignty or prerogative" protected under Part III, Article 152, 153 or 181, other than "in relation to the implementation thereof." The same 1971 amendment (Act A30) is also what extended the scope of Article 153 itself to cover the natives of the Borneo States.

## Common mistakes

**"Article 153 only concerns the Malays."** The Article's own text names both "the Malays and natives of any of the States of Sabah and Sarawak" throughout, and Article 161A gives natives of Sabah and Sarawak a separate definition from "Malay" under Article 160(2).

**"Article 153 sets quotas at a fixed percentage."** The operative language is "such proportion as he may deem reasonable" — the Article itself does not state a number; the proportion is set through directions given under Clause (3), (6) or (8A).

**"Article 153 overrides the requirement to treat civil servants of the same grade impartially."** Clause (5) states the opposite: the Article "does not derogate from the provisions of Article 136."

**"Article 153 lets the government take back scholarships, jobs or licences already granted to non-Malays to meet a quota."** Clauses (4), (7) and (8) all bar exactly this — an existing office, scholarship, permit or licence cannot be taken from its current holder, and routine renewals cannot be refused, "for the purpose of ensuring such a reservation."

## Documented positions

Article 153 remains a live subject of public and legal comment. Reported here without endorsement:

The Malaysian government has publicly reaffirmed the provision. In February 2024, responding to a parliamentarian's call to reassess whether the underlying affirmative-action policy still benefits its intended recipients, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim stated that the government "will continue upholding the position of the Constitution, including Article 153," according to a Prime Minister's Office statement.

Separately, in legal commentary reproduced by the Malaysian Bar (originally published by Raja Aziz Addruse and Helen Ting in the New Sunday Times, 22 June 2008), the authors write that the constitutional provisions on the "special position" were "understood more as a protective measure for the Malay community which was then socio–economically disadvantaged," and note that "five out of the 12 clauses of Article 153 set out to limit the scope of its application." They conclude that "there is no ground to suggest that doing away with the NEP necessarily requires the amendment or repeal of Article 153" — a position that distinguishes the constitutional text of Article 153 from the separate policy framework of the New Economic Policy.

## What's next

For the document Article 153 sits inside, see the [Federal Constitution](/en/law/federal-constitution). For the fundamental-liberties provisions it operates alongside — including Article 8 on equality and Article 10 on freedom of speech — see [Fundamental Liberties](/en/law/fundamental-liberties). For how the reservation of trade and business permits interacts with company ownership rules, see [Bumiputera Equity Requirements](/en/business/bumiputera-equity-requirements). For the institution whose consent Article 159(5) requires to amend this Article, see [Majlis Raja-Raja](/en/government/majlis-raja-raja). For how Sabah and Sarawak's constitutional position more broadly is argued over, see [MA63](/en/malaysia/ma63).

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*This article is classified as sensitive content (3R+1: race) under NegaraKu.md's editorial policy because its subject concerns the special position of the Malays and natives of Sabah and Sarawak under Article 153 of the Federal Constitution. It is written to remain descriptive — reporting what is provided, by whom, and under what limits, without evaluating or characterising the underlying policy — and is held as a provisional draft pending human review.*

## Sources

- Federal Constitution (Reprint 2020, as at 15 October 2020) — Article 153, and related Articles 10, 38, 136, 159, 160, 161A — https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/LOM/EN/Federal%20Constitution%20(Reprint%202020).pdf (Attorney General's Chambers of Malaysia (AGC))
- Bumiputera Statistics, 2024 — https://www.dosm.gov.my/portal-main/release-content/bumiputera-statistics-2024 (Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM))
- Government to Continue Upholding Federal Constitution Including Article 153 – PM Anwar — https://www.pmo.gov.my/en/news-en/government-to-continue-upholding-federal-constitution-including-article-153-pm-anwar/ (Prime Minister's Office of Malaysia)
- Understanding 'Special Position' of Malays (reproducing Raja Aziz Addruse & Helen Ting, New Sunday Times, 22 June 2008) — https://www.malaysianbar.org.my/article/news/legal-and-general-news/members-opinions/understanding-special-position-of-malays (Malaysian Bar)
- Article 153 of the Federal Constitution: Governing Principle for Affirmative Policy Against Social Injustice, Journal of Governance and Integrity, Vol. 5(1) — https://journal.ump.edu.my/jgi/article/view/7130 (Universiti Malaysia Pahang (UMP) / Journal of Governance and Integrity)

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