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Redelineation: Should we have more MPs so they can speak less?
Redelineation ‘foul plays’, especially the trend of increasing parliamentary seats, will only make Pakatan Rakyat’s (PR) aim to clinch Putrajaya a more arduous task.
During a forum on boundary redelineation yesterday, Penang Institute’s political analyst, Dr Wong Chin Huat said that in addition to the malapportionment and gerrymandering, seat increase in constituencies is the latest issue.
“It’s not the number that matters but the percentage, but PR lawmakers shun this fact. In fact, the bigger the parliament, the less valuable the MPs (members of parliament) are,” he added.
“While many think it may be normal, it is not.”
“You can increase seats but that should be discussed in its own rights,” Wong added.
Wong pointed out that seats in parliamentary constituencies are increased to merely satisfy electoral needs and if the increment is not done, then the whole redelineation process becomes only a process of adjustment which is much more practical.
“So the question to PR is simple..do you want a YB title or YAB title?” referring to Yang Berhormat or Yang Amat Berhormat.
“It is better to have a status quo than a really bad redelineation, as at least, the people in the area will know their MPs and the jurisdiction will be more organised,” he said, claiming that the purpose to create more seats is to merely create a false pretense.
“It would seem like you have more representation, but in essence, it really weakens PR,” he added.
Wong said that the Election Commission (EC) is also not concerned if the increased seats weaken the Parliament, adding that the situation can also be easily manipulated by the legislature.
“Increase in seats will distort the disproportion more.
“In principle, this is problematic because we need to think of parliament as a state,” he added.
Wong said therefore, the people who reside within the boundaries of the constituencies must have a say.
“This is why we teach them to draw up their own maps and table it to the EC to consider and take a cue from..to give a rough idea..we have been going throughout Malaysia collecting views from the people,” he told the forum.
In sharing his views, he stressed that two points must be taken into consideration in terms of redelineation; the effectiveness of the parliamentary constitution and the quality of representation.
“Should we have more MPs so that they can then speak less?”
During his presentation, Wong also stated that a peaceful power transition or regime change in the country is also near impossible in the next 10 years, no thanks to the “various delineation foul plays.”
Wong claimed that the combined effects of malapportionment and gerrymandering practised by the EC is the ‘culprit’ for the high possibility.
“This is how the next general election may be won in the next 12 months,” Wong said in tabling his presentation at the forum titled ‘Fixing the boundaries of electoral constituencies’.
“While the EC to us is an Election Commission, to the government, it is merely an Employment Commission,” Wong further alleged.
Wong also revealed four types of gerrymandering practices allegedly committed by the EC, under the purview of the ruling coalition.
They are namely; crossing municipal/ district boundaries, arbitrary combination of communities (within the same municipality/district), portioning of neighbourhoods and teleporting voters.
“In terms of teleporting, we don’t need Star Trek for this..we can see it here,” Wong chipped in referring to the catchphrase “Beam me up, Scotty”, a widely misquoted line from the science fiction television series Star Trek.
This was greeted by laughter from the crowd.
He also shared examples how certain family members find themselves in situations whereby they happen to be the only one who is to vote in a different constituency, unlike the rest of their family members.
“The Prime Minister (Datuk Seri Najib Razak) overrules the EC, and this is what we are trying to fight against,” he further claimed.
“The only party in this case, is not PR or Barisan Nasional (BN) but the Federal Constitution. This is what the EC should adhere itself to,” he added.
As to what’s in store for the future, Wong said; ” It’s not which party wins, but if they win, is the triumph by winning our hearts? If the answer is ‘no’, then there is no more democracy.”
“We will take the EC to court to push for fairer delineation if we have to. We put our faith in the system, believing that there are still some good people left in the EC and in the judiciary.”
Meanwhile, Thomas Fann from the Delineation Action and research Team (Dart) said that in its effort to educate people on delineation issues, the group had travelled throughout the country to teach locals to draw maps of their constitution.
“We are not saying ours is the most accurate but we are trying to help the EC in their task.
“In fact, it is the locals who would know best..not the EC or others,” Fann said while tabling his presentation, adding that equalisation in delineation is doable.
He claimed that everytime a ‘suspicious’ point is raised over EC’s delineation, the commission only claims that it has cleared up the ‘mess’, which was never the case.
After the presentation, Tan Sr Dr Ramon Navaratnam, the former secretary-general in the Transport Ministry expressed his shock over the revelations.
“These issues of inconsistency.. I myself am shocked at the way my colleagues in the civil service can be up to such mischief.. this is devious,” Ramon said, later questioning if Wong had taken the matter up with the EC.
To that, Wong replied that they had back in 2006.
“While the EC has never rebutted us, they have misconstrued and misinterpreted the Federal Constitution,” Wong said..
The forum was organised to discuss unanswered issues and prevailing problems with the redelineation exercises undertaken by the EC.
This year, the commission is to undertake the sixth constituency redelineation exercise.
As stipulated under Schedule 13 of the Federal Constitution, affected public can object to the EC’s proposed boundaries should there be a representation of more than 100 voters.
State governments and local authorities are also allowed to register their objections over the matter, and the EC is required to organise a local inquiry upon registering the objections, as outlined under the constitution.
The exercise usually takes place every eight years.
The last redelineation in 2003, saw over 50% of the objections being rejected, as it failed to fulfill the stipulated conditions.
EC chairman Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof last year, vowed to split up constituencies to ensure that they only contain a maximum of 100,000 voters, in its latest redelineation effort.
He said that after the redelineation exercise is tabled in Parliament, the public will have one month period to view the proposal.
However, Malay daily Utusan Malaysia quoted Aziz as saying that the MPs will have the final say as to whether the number of parliamentary and state seats will be increased by carving them up.
