Sixty-three years ago today, Malaysia was established. It was founded on the conviction that our diversity is to be treasured, bringing together history and people as one to call Malaysia “home”. It was founded on promises too: special safeguards for Sabahans and Sarawakians alongside the guarantee of fundamental liberties in Part II of our Federal Constitution. Malaysia never had to import the idea of human rights. We wrote it into our founding documents.
Those liberties belong to every person in this country. Not to one community more than another, and not to any community at another’s expense. That is the whole design of human rights, so that no one’s dignity depends on their numbers. When one Malaysian’s rights are secured, nothing has been taken from anyone else. Rights are not a contest between us. They are entitlements that may be claimed against the State, not privileges to be granted by it.
Human rights place particular emphasis on those made vulnerable, who are usually the first to lose access to education, health and a livelihood, and the last to be heard. Our Indigenous Peoples — our Aboriginal peoples (Orang Asli), our natives (Anak Negeri), and our Orang Asal — and other groups in marginalised situations require additional support and care. Their voice and their participation in the decisions that affect them are not a courtesy. The two declarations adopted at the ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur in October 2025, on the right to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment (ADER), and on the right to development and the right to peace (ADDP), say as much: development must be participatory and inclusive, and leave no one behind.
The same applies to peace. The absence of open conflict is only half of it. Article 38 of the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration (AHRD) affirms the right of every person and the peoples of ASEAN to enjoy peace within a framework of security and stability, neutrality and freedom, as an essential condition for realising every other right. The ADDP goes further, treating the two as linked: development grounded in equality, non-discrimination and meaningful participation is what produces the stability and well-being on which durable peace depends. That is peace in its positive sense, built through dialogue, prevention and accountability. Six decades of living alongside one another rather than against one another is a real achievement, but it is maintained by effort rather than inherited.
The right to development and the right to enjoy peace are inalienable human rights, and they must be fulfilled in a manner that equitably addresses the developmental and environmental needs of present and future generations, and where everyone can enjoy peace and the fruits of development.
None of this holds without a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment. Our forests, rivers, and coastlines are held in trust for the generations to come. We need to implement the ADER robustly, and protect those who speak up for their lands, our lands, Malaysia.
There is no shortage of work ahead. Malaysia is party to three of the nine core international human rights treaties, and we can narrow that gap. The Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (SUHAKAM) has in its tireless work made numerous recommendations over the years. We must act on them. We can reform our outdated and anti-human rights laws. We can resolve the status of children who do not deserve to be stateless. We can ensure decent treatment of migrant workers.
Malaysia Day reminds us that for every generation, and in every new challenge, we are tasked to keep our human rights won, or to win them again.
To every Malaysian, Selamat Hari Malaysia!
