By Zurairi AR
The Malay Mail Online
November 28, 2013
KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 28 — After an admission of gerrymandering by a former Election Commission (EC) chief, a DAP MP today claimed that past re-delineation exercises were only aimed at protecting the interests of the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) rather than the Malay community.
According to Serdang MP Dr Ong Kian Ming, the EC would have added more seats in Malay-majority states Kedah, Kelantan and Terengganu if it really was protecting the Malay interest as claimed by Tan Sri Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman earlier this week.
“If Tan Sri Abdul Rashid wanted to maintain Malay political dominance, why was it that no parliamentary seats were added to the Malay majority states of Kedah, Kelantan and Terengganu in the 2003 delineation exercise?,” Ong said in a statement here.
“The reason for the non-addition of parliament seats in these three states is simple …The BN was fearful that if more seats were added in these states, it would benefit the opposition, specifically PAS.”
According to Ong, some of the seats in the three states – such as Tumpat (69,948 voters), Kuala Terengganu (65,900), Kuala Kedah (73,942), and Baling (72,387) already have a high number of voters but no seats were added despite that.
However, opposition party PAS had performed exceptionally well in the 1999 general elections in those three states, and the re-delineation exercise in 2003 was done so to prevent PAS from capturing more seats, Ong alleged.
As part of the IKMAS (Institut Kajian Malaysia dan Antarabangsa) study team from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia observing the process, Ong related that he remembered Abdul Rashid admitting of receiving instructions from then Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir to create more ethnically “mixed” seats, rather than adding more seats in the three states.
The assumption behind the instructions, Ong claimed, was that Barisan Nasional would have captured them easily compared to PAS.
“Abdul Rashid was clearly taking instructions from this political masters in the BN during the 2003 delineation exercise,” the DAP MP added.
“The exercise was done in order to increase the political dominance of BN / UMNO and not to increase Malay political dominance per se.”
Ong’s comments today comes following an admission by Tan Sri Abdul Rashid that the three redelineation exercises during his term had ensured the continued political dominance of the Malays, even as the retired election chief insisted the redrawing of electoral boundaries were carried out in the “proper way”.
Rashid was reported to have made the comments after joining Malay rights group Perkasa, during the group’s Federal Territory annual general meeting earlier this week.
Yesterday, elections watchdog Bersih 2.0 had urged the EC to call off its re-delineation exercise as it cast further doubt on the looming revision that has been stained by allegations of gerrymandering.
Bersih 2.0 also repeated its call for the EC clean the electoral rolls and renew its members, claiming the current members of partisan, unethical, and non-independent.
The EC — which has been accused of gerrymandering to give more weight to rural constituencies, where the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) typically enjoys strong support — has said that it will begin redrawing constituency lines at the end of the year.
Polls watchdog Bersih, however, warned the EC last September that a repeat of the massive street rallies for electoral reforms was “inevitable” if the electoral roll is not cleared of irregularities.
Rashid Rashid, dalam diam diam kamu tolong umno baru_a ya. Apa imbuhan kamu dapat? Tak payah declare income tax??
Too bad!
What ever the crook does, nothing can be done against them.
You can curse and call them whatever you like but it doesn’t hurt them a bit.
Just look at Bersih!
What could they do?
Street protest and inquiry are just a waste of time.
Just look at Anwar Ibrahim for instance!
All talk and talk but no action can be taken.
Something like “shiok sendiri” always.
We knew pretty well the GE13 election are a fraud but what can be done anyway?
BN uses EC to cheat us right under our nose and now they are even laughing at us back, asking us for evidence even though there are lots of proof shown.
They’ve cheated and they got away with it and they’ll be more daring in future.
If you think the the opposition can ever win one day, you better don’t ever dream about it.
My whole family voted for Pakatan during the GE13 and I was so confidence that Pakatan could take over the government at that time but just because of all those useless opposition, who can’t even protect their votes from being “hijacked” continuously.
Now the BN government is robbing us back all the money by hiking up every thing and forcibly raising the assessment rate on property as well and all we can do is let it be.
I’m totally disappointed with the opposition and especially that Anwar fella!
As from this day onwards, I and my family will never ever vote for any parties anymore.
Malaysia’s election stinks!!!
Gerrymandering can have a deleterious effect on the principle of democratic accountability. The unfair advantage with uncompetitive seats/constituencies reducing the fear that incumbent politicians may lose office, they have less incentive to represent the interests of their constituents, and may look out more for their party’s interests instead.
The EC had, in no small way, been the stumbling block in past elections. This unethical, partisan, and non-independent commission must be totally revamped, and its members refreshed. Enacted reforms making the practice either more difficult or less effective must be looked into now. Just to share this:
http://harismibrahim.wordpress.com/2013/11/27/tunggu-pilihanraya-atau-turun-jalanraya/
So the delineation was done for the wrong purpose and that would make the delineation exercise unconstitutional.
That means the delineation exercise was illegal. And so the election that was carried out too must be null and void.
Yes? No??
We can be sure they will continue to abuse EC and other institutions for the next GE. Truth is, even if it is already ridiculous farce, they can still do the INSANE..Nothing is beyond them especially for Najib – if he feels comfortable being a weasel in front of Christian Amanpour and Bangladesh, what is political insanity?
But what has PR going for it is simply their dependencies on these cheatings and fake things rather than sound fundamental strength.
Gerrymandering has been n is d WONDERFUL weapon of UmnoB 2 cheat d nation n 2 ensure eternal powerful, n it is readily carried out by UmnoB’s faithful slave n 5th column
It’s not even a secret, it’s an open practice -WHAT CAN rakyat do?! Nothing! Just syiok diri complain here, protest there saja, n at d end, d minority-elected UmnoB’s parliament easily OKs it, nah, nah, nah ………… eat your hearts out, rakyat
Not happy, BALIK wherever U come from …………. sounds familiar?
This Rashid guy is a total disgrace.
The existence of Perkasa and other similar extreme political groups are the result of decades of bad political leadership and gross mismanagement of the country.
They dare not bring their ‘demands’ directly to the govt.. So these cowards and bullies threaten and intimidate the innocent minorities to get attention.
“This Rashid guy is a total disgrace.”
Do U think he, a so-called religious guy, cares abt grace n disgrace? LOL, he sleeps soundly n is well rewarded with big fat pay n a Tan Si title, more private-sector or GLC director posts waiting 4 him (Glory n praise b 2 d almighty UmnoB)
Jealous of his well-lubricated life with tons of p@ssive income n a very high net worth financial status?