Explaining Interactions Between Malaysia’s Dewan Rakyat and Foreign Affairs: A Study of Parliamentary Behaviour Between 1959 and 2019

Abstract

Interactions and power relations between the Malaysian Parliament and foreign affairs have long been neglected by academics. This article is an attempt to fill this gap. The Malaysian Parliament, being the highest legislative authority in the nation, is empowered to enact laws related to foreign and security affairs as well as hold the government to account. Drawing on Philip Norton’s discourse on power relations between parliamentarians and the legislature, this article argues that Malaysian parliamentarians’ check and balance over the executive’s foreign authority is minimal due to a weak parliamentary institution compared with its British counterpart. The best the parliamentarians can achieve is to induce the government to pay attention to their concerns, while a second option is to make foreign issues the business of parliament through tabling adjournment motions to dictate the agenda. There was only one successful instance of a parliamentary intervention in stopping a military asset procurement.