opinion
In Malaysia as well in other countries where governments are periodically elected on the basis of popular votes, constituency delineation exercises are often entrusted to election commissions or representative agencies to carve out areas for the purpose of elections.In Malaysia, constituency delineation exercise is entrusted to the Elections Commission (EC), which is responsible to the chief executive, and it must undertake this exercise as stipulated in the Constitution or any other written document.
Constituency re-delineation exercises are undertaken for a variety of reasons. Changing nature of population, the drift of population from rural to urban areas, the growth in the overall electors, the need to provide effective representation to the people and others are the main factors why the Elections Commission has to undertake this periodic exercise.
In the case of Malaysia, it has been stipulated that this dilatation should be adopted every ten years or so. Following political independence in 1957, a number of re-delineation exercises have been undertaken by the Commission.
However, going on past experience, it was ethnic politics to a large extent that determined the nature of the re-delineation exercises. The so-called social contract between the Malays and non-Malays stipulated among other things, the preponderance of Malay political power as represented in Umno.
This criteria was the sole reason why re-delineation exercises ensured that only rural areas with large Malay presence would be given more weight that urban areas, areas in which the Chinese dominated.
Complicated situation
However, the last three or four decades have somewhat changed the political landscape of the country. Migration of Malays to urban areas, reduction of non-Malay majorities in urban areas, the rise of opposition amongst Malays and non-Malays, the rise of PAS as formidable opposition party in rural areas, the reformist movement culminating in the formation of Parti Keadilan, the formation of Barsian Alternatif (BA) as the alternative coalition have among others interrupted the normal procedure of the Elections Commission.
The EC in Malaysia, without the autonomy and independence, is quite beholden to the government in power or to put it more exactly, to Umno. As long as Umno was perceived as the champion of the Malays and the latter supported the party en bloc, the task of the EC was not complex.
It went about delineating constituencies on the basis that the rural areas received more weight than urban areas. However, the factors cited above and more importantly, the loss of Malay support for Umno, has certainly complicated the situation for the Commission.
The question now is to what extent will the Commission go about re-delineating constituencies, both state and parliament, under the present changed political and demographic circumstances.
Perhaps the changed circumstances have given the EC an opportunity that it has waited for so long - that it would be able to undertake its task without favoring any particular political group in the country.
Although this would be difficult to do given its past political orientation, certainly a time has come for Malaysians to expect a more positive role from the Commission in that constituency re-delineation should proceed on more universally accepted criteria rather the earlier practice of favoring Umno only. Of course, reliance on earlier practice, might not provide the same useful benefits to this party.
Fixed representation
It is suggested that the EC, entrusted with this difficult task, pay attention to the following aspects of the Malaysian political reality. First, Malays and non-Malays should not treated as opposing blocks in the political scenario and that the Commission should move away from the earlier practice of giving too much weight to one area to the exclusion of another area.
Second, the Commission should create certain constituencies, both state and parliamentary, to ensure that marginalized groups such as Indians have certain fixed representation, say 10 percent at both levels. Such as step will ensure, among others, that the Indians and others can obtain a certain degree of representation for their respective communities.
Perhaps is not asking too much for the EC and the government to look at the examples of other countries where numerically inferior groups have been given certain electoral weight.
For instance, reservation of certain parliamentary and state constituencies for certain ethnic groups might not be bad idea to provide some kind of representation for these groups so that they are not swallowed by the larger ethnic groups.
The real question is whether the government of the day is still holding on to an outmoded system hatched in the late fifties and early sixties. Unless these small ethnic and cultural groups are given some recognition, there is real possibility they might become politically marginalized.
Heavy gerrymandering
As it is, the electoral system is weighted in favor of certain indigenous groups both in West Malaysia and East Malaysia. But then present day political calculations point out that indigenous groups voting patterns have changed very much in comparison with earlier decades.
Today, as in the case of peninsula Malaysia, the government has awakened to the fact that earlier electoral polarisations between the Malays and non-Malays have changed as result of variety of factors having their roots in the nature of development and the manner of political management.
Although it is true that the government looks with much concern with the change in the voting pattern on the basis of the last general elections, heavy gerrymandering might not be a real possibility.
As there are demands for democratisation, for improving human rights position, reducing the ethnic nature of politics, there are also demands for the government and the EC to come out with a more balanced and fair re-delineation of electoral constituencies.
This exercise should be sensitive to the negative features of an electoral system that has relied too long on a simple majority without providing the necessary safeguards for the representation of marginalized ethnic communities.
P RAMASAMY is a professor of political economy at the Political Science Department, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia and has academic interests in Malaysian politics and labour. He has written quite extensively and is currently focusing on conflict management in Sri Lanka.
