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More seats will check gerrymandering, says opposition

More seats will check gerrymandering, says opposition

While Pakatan Rakyat supports the creation of more parliamentary seats in the next redelineation exercise as a means to check malapportionment, academics and non-governmental organisations have warned that it will not necessarily improve the quality of elected representatives.

PAS election director Dr Mohd Hatta Ramli said the opposition pact was agreeable to having more seats, but that would depend on the redelineation plan proposed by the Election Commission (EC).

"With the current number of seats and the distribution of voters in the different states, there is no way proportionate numbers can be achieved without adding more seats.

"If the EC shows us its proposal, which has gerrymandering or malapportionment, we have every right to oppose it.

“We need to see their suggestions so that we can check against our records. If it is too obviously inclined to help Barisan Nasional, then we will give our recommendations," he told a forum titled “Legislative seat increase: should we have larger Parliament and assemblies?” at the Bar Council today.

The EC had said it was looking at increasing federal seats by about 15% to 20% in its redelineation exercise, which was expected to take place soon, with new seats in Selangor, Johor, Perak, Kelantan, Kedah and Terengganu.

In an interview with English daily The Star in February this year, EC chairman Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof said it was looking to split seats in Selangor, Perak and Johor where there were more than 70,000 voters.

"We’ve got feedback from elected representatives that it was too difficult to service their voters when their constituency is too big and we heard from voters that it is difficult for them to see their representatives. So we must do something," he was quoted as saying.

The proposal would also help states like Terengganu, Kelantan and Kedah, which were left out in the last redelineation exercise in 2003, to gain more seats in tandem with the increase in voters, said DAP strategist Dr Ong Kian Ming.

"This is a historic opportunity for us. If the seats are increased, we can test the robustness of the democratic process because it would require BN to talk to PR, which is why we are not rejecting the increase the proposal to have more seats," he said.

Support for the proposal also came from Umno member and former deputy higher education minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah, who said an increase in seats would correct the weaknesses in the 13th general election results.

The ratio of voters to federal seats was imbalanced, he said, adding that certain states were overrepresented, while others were under-represented.

In citing examples, he said the east coast state of Terengganu has a federal to voter ratio of 1: 79,000, Pahang 1:52,000 and Selangor 1: 93,000.

"Reducing the seats can be problematic, adding is not an issue, so add where you can, otherwise there might be no balance," said the former Temerloh MP.

Political analyst Professor James Chin, however, disagreed with the move to boost the number of elected representatives, saying it was not advisable as the current Parliament was dysfunctional and "out of whack", and having additional MPs would not contribute to better discourse.

"We need to improve the quality of our Parliament rather than quantity," said Chin, of Monash University Malaysia.

Penang Institute political scientist Dr Wong Chin Huat said on average, the 222 MPs only had 2.5 hours to speak in Parliament in 2012.

"Having more MPs will mean they have to compete with each other with the little time they have and instead of participating in a substantial debate, they will be trying to capture the limelight.”

He also said a seat increase would further weaken the parliamentary system and should not be justified without a parliamentary reform package. It would also not contribute to mitigating interstate malapportionment nor would it enhance the interests of Sabah and Sarawak.

He said the reason the number of legislators in Parliament had grown over the years was because Barisan Nasional has been using it to resolve its internal conflicts, by creating more seats to appease factionalism.

In citing an example, electoral reform group Tindak Malaysia founder Wong Piang Yow said Thailand with a population of 63.5 million has 226 MPs, compared with Malaysia which has a population of 30 million and 222 MPs.

He said that before the number of seats in Parliament could be increased, the electoral system should be reformed and suggested that an independent boundary committee be set up.

"Having more MPs in Parliament is not going to help us. Instead it is more money being squandered. Our problem lies with the quality, not with quantity," he said.

PKR's Subang MP R. Sivarasa said he agreed with the academics’ views to an extent, but added that it was mostly due to lack of time and resources to serve effectively to check and balance the government.

"I think it's a misunderstanding. We do not have certain facilities made available to us such as having longer Question Time, having more bipartisan committees for important portfolios and having research assistants like Indonesia to play a better role," he said. – April 19, 2014.