ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the COVID-19 pandemic triggered a formal declaration of emergency which is likely to produce lasting damage to constitutional democracy in Malaysia. The pandemic coincided with the unexpected fall in 2020 of a democratic reformist government which, in a historic victory in 2018, had defeated an ethno-authoritarian regime that had controlled government since 1957. The ensuing political uncertainty, followed by a declaration of emergency, gave the constitutional monarch, the king, legally and politically unaccountable power to determine who formed the government. While the king acted in good faith, he appointed an interim government that proved resistant to establishing genuine democratic legitimacy in Parliament. In addition, the courts were reluctant to judicially review the declaration of emergency and laws enacted by the government during the emergency, including a troubling ‘fake news’ ordinance that made it unlawful to question the king’s declaration of emergency. Finally, ideologues constructed an authoritarian re-description of constitutional legality to claim that the king’s decisions were sufficient to imbue constitutional and democratic legitimacy to political decisions that were not, in fact, based on meaningful democratic processes. The COVID-19 pandemic thereby amplified authoritarian trajectories in Malaysia likely to favour a return to ethno-authoritarian rule.
