Negotiated Centralism in Malaysian Federalism: Sarawak Regionalism and the Reconfiguration of Federal–State Power after 2018

Abstract

This article examines how Sarawak’s regionalism after 2018 reconfigured the exercise of federal–state power within Malaysia’s federal system. The study addresses the tension between Sarawak’s constitutionally asymmetrical position and the continued concentration of political, fiscal, and administrative authority at the federal level. Using a qualitative case study design, the analysis draws on five semi-structured elite interviews and documentary evidence, including constitutional provisions, legislation, parliamentary records, government documents, policy statements, and relevant secondary sources. The interview data were analysed through researcher-led thematic analysis. Four interrelated findings emerged: strengthened political leverage through Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS), expanded fiscal autonomy and resource governance, increased administrative devolution, and enhanced constitutional recognition. The findings show that political leverage functioned as the principal enabling mechanism through which Sarawak advanced wider autonomy-related demands. However, the durability of these gains varied. Fiscal autonomy became more substantial but remained partly contested, administrative devolution expanded but continued to depend largely on federal delegation, and constitutional recognition became formally entrenched without producing comprehensive decentralisation. The article therefore introduces the concept of negotiated centralism to explain a federal arrangement in which constitutional authority remains predominantly concentrated at the centre while its practical exercise becomes increasingly shaped by bargaining, accommodation, and differentiated arrangements with a politically influential regional government. The Sarawak case demonstrates that meaningful federal change can occur without comprehensive constitutional restructuring and highlights the importance of distinguishing political concessions from institutionally durable authority.