-along with Djakarta and [insert major city in Riau Islands here] major city in the Malay Archipelago

As a city-state and major trade hub with astonishing amounts of diversity, Malacca's legislature is divided between two separate chambers. While the First Chamber is a standard one with constituencies intentionally mapped to be multicultural and accordingly political parties are rarely segregated by religion, the Second Chamber is specifically allocated per ethnic group. As a legacy of Malacca's long period of Dutch colonial rule, it contains well-developed ethnic institutions which serve both a legislative and judicial role over certain aspects of civil law. Though these systems have been democratized since independence through the introduction of consultation and electoral colleges since then, they have been further institutionalized by allowing these institutions to select members of the Second Chamber.

The Bendahara heads Malay law, which contains customary adat combined with the Islamic sharia; the former is often justified by the latter. He, as the leader of the adat court system as well as the leader of the Malay community, is in charge of nominating 25 members. By tradition, this number contains 15 former adat judges; the remaining 10 are up to the Bendahara's discretion, but they typically include former politicians or famous Malaccan Malays, and unofficially these must be approved by the Malaccan Executive Council.

The Kapitan Keling and the Kapitan Arab head the Indian Muslim (or Keling) and Arab communities, respectively. In practice, however, both of these communities are highly assimilated and merged into the Malay communities, and the vast majority of both are mixed-race with only their patrilineal lines being of their nominal ethnicities. But nonetheless, they both have separate legal and cultural frameworks often defined by a stronger emphasis on the sharia and little to none on adat, although Kelings tend to follow the Hanafi maddhab. They are in charge of nominating 5 members each; these members do not always belong to their respective communities but serve often as extensions of Malay appointments.

The Kapitan Cina heads the Chinese community, and he heads a Chinese Council consisting of a Majoor, Luitenant, and other officers. This is in charge of laws for the Chinese community, which consists of elements of the law of old Qing China but much altered since Qing China no longer exists. Similarly, in costumes and procedure, they resemble a mandarin of China in its imperial era. This despite many of its leaders being Peranakan Chinese who often speak Malay as their first language. As the oldest and best-established of cultural institutions leading Malacca's largest ethnic group, the Kapitan Cina and his council appoints 35 members. They are "eminent personalities", typically influential traders and magnates but often former Malaccan Chinese politicians as well.

The Kapitan Hindoe heads the Hindoe community, which consists of two major elements - Indian Hindus and Balinese people - although the two have largely merged with one another due to intermarriage, creating a single Hindoe community which speaks Malay and follows a mixture of Tamil and Balinese customs. He also leads a Hindoe Court which follows so-called "Hindu law"; since no such thing exists, the court instead follows the so-called "Hindoe Code" consisting of statutes copied from the Maharashtrian law book as it existed in 1960. He is in charge of nominating 10 members, who are almost always former judges on the Hindoe Court.

The Kapitan Javanees heads the Javanese community, which consists largely of low-class migrants from the late nineteenth century onwards. High-class Javanese migrants tended to assimilate into Malayness, while low-class ones were excluded from it and often shamed for the way they practiced Islam. Associated with the Kapitan is a court which rules on the basis chiefly on Javanese adat, with small elements of sharia included. He nominates 10 members, who are typically Javanese politicians, both aspirant and former, and in this role it is quite influential in the Malaccan Javanese community in a way others are not.

The Kapitan Freeburgheren heads Malaccan Freeburghers, a community which contains those who were given special citizenship prior to the Batavian Republic and similar peoples. The chief element of them consists of Kristangs, who are descended from the unions of Portuguese men and local women during the Portuguese era. This community headed Malaccan life until the Dutch takeover removed much of their position. The Dutch period saw the rise of a similar mixed-race community consisting of unions of Dutch men and local women, and following independence this community got larger still as East Indies Eurasians and other Christians in the East Indies, fleeing the loss of their status and nasty reprisals, moved to Malacca. Upon Malacca's independence, they were organized into a single community with their own Kapitan, with a court ruling them under Dutch law. This Kapitan has the right to appoint seven members, and they are typically eminent personalities.

The remaining three members are appointed by the Executive Council, and they are typically members of various minorities who do not fall into this framework, be they non-Malay non-Javanese Muslims, or Indian Christians who do not consider themselves Freeburghers. Often they are specifically appointed to serve the government and help it send laws through the often independent-minded Second Chamber, and in this role they often serve as unofficial representatives of the government.

This eclectic system is one which has been criticized by many. It often institutionalizes the wealthy, and there are many calls for more democratic elections of members, or of breaking up the ethnic clustering model, or of abolishing the Second Chamber entirely. But nevertheless, such proposals have typically been unsuccessful.