Malaysia Enabling Environment Snapshot

Malaysia’s stewardship of ASEAN in 2025 entailed commendable efforts in advancing inclusivity, sustainability, and deeper inter-regional cooperation. The country led the adoption of the ASEAN Community Vision 2045, a people-centred roadmap for the next two decades. Putrajaya’s diplomatic agility was most evident in its mediation of the Thailand-Cambodia border conflict, which culminated in the Kuala Lumpur Peace Accord in October 2025, successfully de-escalating years of intermittent tensions. The 47th ASEAN Summit further solidified this legacy through the historic adoption of two landmark instruments: the ASEAN Declaration on the Right to a Safe, Clean, Healthy and Sustainable Environment and the Declaration on Promoting the Right to Development and the Right to Peace Towards Realising Inclusive and Sustainable Development. These commitments reflect a major shift toward addressing regional challenges—from climate change to inequalities in development—through a rights-based lens. Other notable milestones include formalising Timor-Leste’s accession as the 11th member state and facilitating a review of the Five-Point Consensus on Myanmar, which maintained a steady, dialogue-based approach to the regional crisis. 

While these regional milestones bolstered Malaysia’s international standing, they stood in stark contrast to the domestic reality. The period between 2025 and March 2026 was marked by a profound disconnect between the government’s reformist rhetoric and an entrenched state apparatus that continues to prioritise securitised control and institutional preservation over constitutional safeguards and accountability. 

The judiciary emerged as a key battleground for upholding constitutional safeguards and justice against state-perpetrated violations. Progressive landmark rulings were met with persistent state pushback, as evident in the government’s successful appeal against the Heidy Quah ruling —which had invalidated "offensive" and "annoy" under Section 233 of the CMA—and the Attorney General’s Chambers’ (AGC) successful application to stay the RM37 and RM3 million compensation awarded for the enforced disappearances of Pastor Raymond Koh and Amri Che Mat respectively. This environment where the state actively seeks to overturn rights-affirming precedents, amidst punitive enforcement against the exercise of freedom of expression and assembly, justifies the CIVICUS Monitor’s maintenance of Malaysia’s rating as ‘Obstructed’ in 2025, which also cites the systemic harassment of human rights defenders and journalists.

Implementation of reforms related to institutional oversight, governance and civil and political rights has been uneven. Amendments to the Whistleblower Protection Act and the reintroduction of the Parliamentary Services Act signal responsiveness to long-standing demands, yet they sit alongside a procurement law that centralises wide discretionary powers in the Finance Minister. The government’s commitment to an indiscriminate anti-corruption agenda was further called into question following Bloomberg’s investigative reporting in early 2026, which alleged Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s Chief Commissioner Azam Baki’s conflict of interest regarding shareholdings and alleged abetment in a corporate mafia scheme. On another note, the tabling of high-stakes reforms in Parliament—namely the Ombudsman Bill, the Freedom of Information (FOI) Bill, and constitutional amendments to separate the Attorney General (AG) and Public Prosecutor (PP) roles—were deferred until 2026. Only the Bill on AG-PP saw progress, being scheduled to be retabled in the second Parliamentary sitting of 2026 after referral to a Parliamentary Special Select Committee for review. Critical reviews of the Peaceful Assembly Act (PAA) and the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act (SOSMA) remain protracted in progress. SOSMA, in particular, is emblematic of reform stagnation, in light of prior amendment pledges made in 2023. 

Policing of marginalised groups intensified, as religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, and citizenship status remained key terrains of control. State Islamic institutions deepen efforts to expand Syariah-based authority, increasingly targeting alternative spiritual and wellness practices while rebranding theological non-conformity as a matter of national security surveillance. LGBTQI+ persons faced a surge in arrests, censorship, and coordinated misinformation. This securitised approach extended to migrant and refugee populations. In 2025, a 10-year high of 92,360 undocumented migrants were arrested. Enforcement became significantly more intrusive via the integration of advanced thermal drone technology into immigration raids, marking a shift toward aerial surveillance that bypasses traditional residential privacy and further traumatises communities already living in precarious legality.