Bio-constitutionalism, Power Relations and Endemic Inequalities: Implications of the Commodification of the Right to Health in a Deglobalising Malaysia

Abstract

This chapter examines the bio-constitutional shifts in Malaysia following Covid-19’s onset and its implications for the right to health by specifically applying commodification theory. This shift has been exacerbated by the pandemic, forcing us to consider the amplification of endemic inequalities, which in turn reveal widening domestic cracks in fundamental regulatory systems, failures in democratic governance as well as inequitable access to distributive and substantive justice in healthcare and general welfare. Two main questions to ask are: (1) how this bio-constitutional shift has had an impact on the right to health and (2) if this right itself has become subject to commodification. This chapter argues that a combination of this shift and internal political affairs may have hastened Malaysia’s descent into deglobalisation, thus resulting in populist politics, the emergence of a modified form of democracy and persistent intra-political contestations among political parties, thus magnifying poverty rates and inequalities, leading to the “suspension” of constitutional rights and requiring citizens to renegotiate their positions accordingly.