SHAH ALAM: The Selangor Government, together with the Malaysian Bar Council, today launched the state-level campaign of MyConstitution on March 1 to create greater awareness on the Federal Constitution among the people of Selangor.


The campaign was launched by Selangor Menteri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim at the Annexxe Building at Bangunan Sultan Salahuddin Sultan Aziz Shah in Shah Alam. Also at the launch was Bar Council president Ragunath Kesavan and the Bar Human Rights Committee chairman Edmund Bon.

The state, through the Bar Council network, expects to distribute about 100,000 booklets entitled “The Rakyat Guides: 3. Federal-State Relations” to the public.

“The State Government decided to participate in the Bar Council’s MyConstitution campaign because we feel that the people must be educated on their rights that are safeguarded in the Constitution", said the Menteri Besar.

He added that the third phase of the campaign has a special meaning to the state which is facing conflicting views with the federal government in terms of financial allocation for development amongst others.

“It is important for the public to know the constitutional rights of the state government. As a Federalism, states are accorded their respective rights, and people should be aware of these in order to safeguard their interests,” said Tan Sri Abdul Khalid.

The state-level campaign is the third phase of the nation-wide campaign initiated by the Bar Council last year. Its first two earlier guidebooks were:  “The Rakyat Guides: 1. What is the Federal Constitution?” and “The Rakyat Guides: 2. Constitutional Institutions & Separation of Powers”.

In conjunction of the launch, the state and the Bar Council co-hosted a forum entitled “State Powers: A Reality or Myth?” . It was held at the same time and place and among the speakers were senior academicians Dr Abdul Aziz Bari and Mavis Puthucheary, and human rights lawyers Fahda Nur, Derek Fernandez, and Hanipa Maidin.