Multi-layered territorial governance in South East Asia and the protection of religious rights under the constitution

This article deals with a series of core constitutional issues associated with South East Asian states related to their colonial legacy. The discussion addresses the connection between the recognition and protection of religious rights and the forms of territorial governance adopted as part of three quite distinct constitutions. After briefly considering typologies of devolved government, the study takes as its subject the constitutional provisions relating to sub-national government in the neighbouring South East Asian nations of Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand. From a comparative perspective the article examines how the respective experience of colonisation and colonial activity in the region contributed to the formation of what is termed a ‘multi-layered’ constitutional system. Following on from this, the constitutional protection of religious rights and freedoms is viewed through three quite different lenses. The first example, concerning apostacy and religious rights, involves the friction between the Federal Constitution of Malaysia as an Islamic state partly dependent on Syriah law with its common law based legal system. The second example, considers how a form of devolved government, ceding control for domestic governance and religious worship, was introduced in Indonesia to secure a political settlement notwithstanding a previous commitment to a deliberately centralised constitution which recognises religious and citizen rights. The insurgency in the provinces in the extreme South of Thailand is taken as the final example. This conflict raises the question of whether some form of devolution modifying the constitution based on a centralised system of governance might offer a means of accommodating the aspirations of the Muslim population forming a majority in this southern region.