Parliamentary seats must reflect population, not political bargaining
From Ibrahim M Ahmad
It was not surprising to hear that Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim had agreed to consider increasing the number of parliamentary seats in Sabah and Sarawak, subject to the resolution of legal issues.
The premise of the argument is simple enough. Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore originally held about 34% of the seats in the Dewan Rakyat. The formula was designed to prevent peninsula MPs from holding a two-third supermajority in the lower house to enable them to pass constitutional amendments prejudicial to the three other regions.
Sabah and Sarawak claim that following Singapore’s exit in 1965, they ought to be entitled to hold one-third of the seats in the Dewan Rakyat between them. It is a demand that has grown louder in recent years, encouraged by political discord and vote fragmentation in the West.
No one will dispute the proposition that parliamentary seats should ensure equitable representation so that the weight of one person’s vote is not vastly different…
#SHOWBIZ: A night of pop queens — present, future and forever