BY GERARD LOURDESAMY
I am constrained to respond to the comments made by the Chief Justice of the Federal Court at the recent ceremonial opening of the legal year, which certainly merits debate and contemplation.
As the head of the judiciary, he rightly touched on matters pertaining to the Constitution, rule of law, human rights and the administration of justice in this country.
The fundamental freedoms provision in Part II of the Federal Constitution does not have its origins in any particular religious texts or from our Malay or Malayan norms and values pre-1957.
They have their origins in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen of 1789, the US Constitution of 1787, the American Declaration of Independence of 1776, the English Bill of Rights of 1689 and the Magna Carta of 1215.
The Rukun Negara is not a constitutional document, and neither does it have the force of law, because it is devoid of any statutory basis.
It is merely a national ideology that was constructed by the government in response to the race riots of 1969.
The Rukun Negara does not take primacy over the Constitution and neither should it be a point of reference when it comes to the interpretation of the Constitution. Read more