{"id":1198,"date":"2026-06-03T21:05:58","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T21:05:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/imagined.my\/?p=1198"},"modified":"2026-06-03T21:05:59","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T21:05:59","slug":"sultan-abu-bakar-and-the-first-constitution-in-southeast-asia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/imagined.my\/?p=1198","title":{"rendered":"Sultan Abu Bakar and the First Constitution in Southeast Asia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Research By<\/strong> Loong Dien Min<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Although this photograph of Sultan Abu Bakar embodied the convention of European state portraiture, his chosen choice of dress was a mix of Malay, European and Ottoman styles.
Source: Royal Collection Trust, UK<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

People, ideas, and print moved across borders\u2014and surprisingly, so did laws. Laws were translated, taken up, travelled, and transformed through the figures who carried them. Sultan Abu Bakar of Johor (1833-1895) was one such person. Not only did he travel extensively and build alliances with Muslims and non-Muslim states, but he was carried laws from place to place. A key example of this is the Johor Constitution of 1895 (Undang-Undang Tubuh Kerajaan Johor 1895), the first Constitution in Southeast Asia<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sketch of Sultan Abu Bakar (right) and his Turkish wife (left), Sultana Khadijah, who travelled to the Ottoman empire. This material is now housed at the British Library.
Source: Amat Asmiaty et al. (2021). “Influence of the Turkish Empire on Malaya in the Malay Manuscript of the Leiden University Library Collection”. Psychology and Education Journal<\/em> 58 (2). 5960.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In the late nineteenth century, the mobility of a ruler was entwined with sovereignty, state-building and diplomacy. Beyond the Islamic World, the Sultan paid visits to King Umberto I, the second king of Italy between 18 and 24 April 1885. In 1875 to 1876, he travelled to India and briefly visited Ceylon on his way back from England in 1878. In 1881, he journeyed to Java, and in 1883, he toured Hong Kong, Japan, and China. He even received King Kalakaua of Hawai\u2019i at the Istana Besar in the capital of Johor Bahru. Travelling allowed him to project legitimacy to multiple audiences, be it European, Asian or Muslim. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sultan Abu Bakar on a ship with the Brassey Family, 1887.
Source: Izmal Karim, on X-plorasi<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Sultan Abu Bakar\u2019s was forced to constantly account for European imperial pressures, especially the British, to secure his rule. In 1885, he signed a treaty in London which ceded foreign affairs to the British in exchange for recognition as the lawful sovereign of Johor. He also developed close relations with Queen Victoria of England. By 1890, he was already well-known among the European aristocracy and appeared several times in the American press. Acquiring an international presence was an important part of his campaign to gain official recognition by the British, Dutch and the French.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sultan Abu Bakar’s portrait, which was a gift from Queen Victoria. Source: Komuniti Johor on FB<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Sultan\u2019s identity as a global traveller was informed by his mobile past. He was educated by British missionaries, brought up in Singapore, and forged close relationships with the Arab, Chinese and English during his rule. Often accused as an Anglophile, his earliest advisors were in fact, Hadhrami Arabs, who were able to exploit Hadhrami networks for commercial, social and religious purposes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Hadhrami Arab man and boy in present-day Indonesia, undated.
Source: Alwi Alatas, Hidayatullah.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Johor Constitution of 1895 declared Johor\u2019s autonomy. Drafted by the Sultan\u2019s English legal advisors in Singapore and his Malay ministers, it outlined the duties of Cabinet and Legislative Council, placed the Sultan as head of state, and made Islam the state religion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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First content page of Johor 1895 Constitution in Jawi.
Source: Dewan Negeri Johor<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The Johor Constitution in English
Source: Dewan Negeri Johor<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In its layout and language, the Constitution loosely resembles the Meiji Constitution of 1890, the only other Asian constitution available at that point. But Japan was not the only state wherein state elites were trying to fight for a new Constitution. In both Siam and the Ottoman empire, proposals to establish a constitution were struck down by King Chulalongkorn and Sultan Abdulhamid respectively in 1885 and 1878. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 The Meiji emperor proclaiming the Meiji Constitution in 1889.
Source: Britannica<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Constitution was part of the Sultan\u2019s wider reform program to bolster his authority and his descendants over Johor. When it was being drafted, the Sultan was already ill. The Constitution was then enacted the same year as his death. Until then, the Sultan\u2019s political claim over Johor was only guaranteed through official treaties with the British. A constitution was seen as a better defence against succession disputes, external interventions or political instabilities, because it could not be changed or revoked as easily as treaties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sultan Ibrahim, Son of Sultan Abu Bakar.
Source: Wikipedia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Johor Constitution was Sultan Abu Bakar\u2019s attempt to weather challenges to political instability and imperial pressure. It was successful and influential on many levels. Despite the fate of the Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States, Johor became the last Malay State to admit a British Adviser in 1914. This was intimately linked to the Sultan\u2019s itinerant life and his transregional adoption of laws. The Johor Constitution provided the groundwork for the Federation of Malaya Constitution of 1957, which continue to be the rulebook for the Malaysian state today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Signing ceremony of The Federation of Malaya Agreement on 5 August 1957, which later brought the 1957 Constitution of the Federation of Malaya into force. 
Source: SembangKuala<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Hadhrami Arab family in present-day Indonesia, undated.
Source: Antimateri.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Surveyor Harry Lake’s map of the Johor territory, 1894.
Source: Geographicus Rare Antique Maps<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Further Readings<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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  • Iza Hussin. \u201cTextual Trajectories: Re-Reading the Constitution and Majalah in 1890s Johor.\u201d Indonesia and the Malay World <\/em>41, no. 120 (July 2013): 255\u201372.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Abdul Rahman Tang Abdullah. \u201cSultan Abu Bakar\u2019s Foreign Guests and Travels Abroad, 1860s-1895: Fact and Fiction in Early Malay Historical Accounts.\u201d Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society<\/em> 84, no. 1 (June 2011): 1\u201322.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Miller, Nicholas. \u201cFamily Resemblance? Colonialism, Sovereignty, and the Global Royal Family in Nineteenth-Century Hawai\u2018i and Johor,\u201d in Robert Aldrich et al., ed. Global Royal Families: Cultures of Transnational Monarchy in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries<\/em>. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2024.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Research By Loong Dien Min People, ideas, and print moved across borders\u2014and surprisingly, so did laws. Laws were translated, taken up, travelled, and transformed through the figures who carried them. Sultan Abu Bakar of Johor (1833-1895) was one such person. Not only did he travel extensively and build alliances with Muslims and non-Muslim states, but he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":1200,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[81],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-myunbd"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/imagined.my\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/image-60.png",1036,1036,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/imagined.my\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/image-60-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/imagined.my\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/image-60-300x300.png",300,300,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/imagined.my\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/image-60-768x768.png",768,768,true],"large":["https:\/\/imagined.my\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/image-60-1024x1024.png",1024,1024,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/imagined.my\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/image-60.png",1036,1036,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/imagined.my\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/image-60.png",1036,1036,false],"smart-post-landscape":["https:\/\/imagined.my\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/image-60-870x570.png",870,570,true],"smart-post-portrait":["https:\/\/imagined.my\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/image-60-600x900.png",600,900,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Amna Account","author_link":"https:\/\/imagined.my\/?author=16"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Research By Loong Dien Min People, ideas, and print moved across borders\u2014and surprisingly, so did laws. Laws were translated, taken up, travelled, and transformed through the figures who carried them. Sultan Abu Bakar of Johor (1833-1895) was one such person. Not only did he travel extensively and build alliances with Muslims and non-Muslim states, but he…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/imagined.my\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/imagined.my\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/imagined.my\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imagined.my\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imagined.my\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1198"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/imagined.my\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1198\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1221,"href":"https:\/\/imagined.my\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1198\/revisions\/1221"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imagined.my\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/imagined.my\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imagined.my\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imagined.my\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}