Tommy Thomas said The Reid Commission, a five-member team of experts headed by senior British judge William Reid, were not only made up of foreigners, but also people who were legally trained.
Thomas said this was a dangerous recipe for nation-building.
“A monopoly of lawyers is not healthy for any body politic,” he told the Malaysian Bar’s symposium on “Constitutional Law: Rule of Law in Jeopardy?” yesterday.
Thomas said although lawyers were required for their technical drafting skills, they were often narrow in outlook and pedantic in expression.
Besides Reid, the other members of the commission were British academic Ivor Jennings, former Australian governor-general William McKell, and judges B Malik and Halim Abdul Hamid, respectively from India and Pakistan.
Thomas questioned the absence of any Malayan historian, political thinker or economist in the Reid Commission.
“With such omissions, it is not surprising that the Reid Commission Report is very much a lawyer’s document for an audience of lawyers,” he said.
He drew a comparison to the United States and India where their constitutions were the products of totally home grown talent representing diverse classes and interests.
“Thus Washington, Madison, Hamilton and Franklin in the US and Nehru, Sardar Patel, Rajendra Prasad and Ambedkar in India played the crucial roles in drafting their constitutions and then acted as their protectors and guardian.
“They set the tone for future generations,” he added.
Thomas said the nation’s first Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman, who led the Alliance coalition to victory in the 1955 election, was adamant that the drafters must all be foreign on the belief that locals could not be impartial.
He said the Malay Rulers on the other hand wished to have locals in the drafting committee.
“The British had the final say and by this time had substantial experience in selecting ‘suitable’ candidates,” he said.
Thomas said the Reid draft also suffered structural defects because of the monopoly enjoyed by the Alliance coalition whose views were given weight compared to other political parties and interests.