Knowing the Story of My Constituency
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A detailed examination for young adults to understand the demographics and formation of constituencies in Malaysia. This was presented by Danesh Prakash Chacko, Tindak Malaysia Mapping Advisor to PolisiLab, community of budding policy makers in Malaysia, on 5/10/2019
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Knowing the Story of My Constituency
- 1. KNOWING THE STORY OF MY CONSTITUENCY Danesh Prakash Chacko (Tindak Malaysia Network Services PLT)
- 2. TEBRAU STORY
- 3. OUTLINE • Recapping Electoral System in Malaysia • What is a Parliamentary and a State Constituency? • Redelineation Principles • Rigging the borders • Practical Activities
- 4. BASICS OF MALAYSIAN ELECTORAL SYSTEM • Parliamentary style government • First Past the Post (FPTP) /Plurality • How to form a government?
- 5. PARLIAMENTARY AND STATE CONSTITUENCY • What makes a constituency? • Blue indicates locality • Red indicates polling district (DM)
- 6. PARLIAMENTARY AND STATE CONSTITUENCY • Evolving Parliament Size in Malaysia • Food for thought: Is it even possible to reduce seats?
- 7. PARLIAMENTARY AND STATE CONSTITUENCY • HOW DO THEY MATTER TO YOU? • Determining the representative that represents you at state and national level • Unofficially, it influences effectiveness of a representative in dealing specific local issues • Ultimately, it is one of the contributing factor who forms the government of the day • Knowing my constituency means: • Understanding who will represent you effectively • How boundaries affect my general life
- 8. FUNDAMENTALS OF REDELINEATION • Redelineation • Constitutional Principles Gerry goes absolute meandering at the polling district (DM) level
- 9. CONSTITUTIONAL PRINCIPLES • 13th Schedule: • 2(a) – Constituency boundaries not to cross over state boundaries. State Constituency is to be nested in a parliamentary constituency - HONOURED • 2(b) – Ought to have enough administrative facilities for polling and voter registration -VIOLATED • 2(c) – Number of electors ought to be approximately equal exception of country districts - VIOLATED • 2(d) – To consider any inconveniences that is arising from redelineation and preservation of local ties - VIOLATED • Article 113: • Redelineation can be done no less than 8 years exception of change in number of constituencies
- 10. CONSTITUTIONAL PRINCIPLES • Watering Down the Principles 1953-54 • Rural Constituency can be half of urban constituency (+/-33%) 1957 • Strict principle on malapportionment (+/-15%) • Time limit for redelineation review 1960 • EC commenced new redelineation using 1957 principles. UMNO opposes the new proposals 1962 • 1960 boundaries annulled. Return to +/-33% for constituency size • Gutting of EC’s independence
- 11. CONSTITUTIONAL PRINCIPLES 1963 • Parliament takes first step determine in seat allocation for Malaysia 1973 • Parliament completely determines seat allocation by state • Malapportionment Limits taken out • KL excised of Selangor (1974) 1984 • Removal of 10 year limit for redelineation • Redelineation can be done anytime as soon as change of seat count occur • New Seats may not need to follow constitutional principles
- 12. RIGGING THE BORDERS “A RIGGED REDELINEATION IS AN OUTCOME OF A POLITICAL SCENARIO WHICH PERPETUATES THE SAME SCENARIO”
- 13. RIGGING THE BORDERS • Consequence 1 : Interstate malapportionment • Vote values among different states begins to diverge and worsen • Increase of seats are subjected to the whims of government of the day
- 14. 16501 16981 13626 13695 7211 10949 18105 11442 11808 16212 21573 0 10000 20000 30000 40000 50000 60000 70000 80000 90000 100000 STATEPARLIAMENTARYEQ STATE 1958 REDELINEATION CYCLE
- 15. 20007 24166 24114 23454 21192 24440 20356 21901 23559 25138 25204 0 10000 20000 30000 40000 50000 60000 70000 80000 90000 100000 STATEPARLIMENTARYEQ STATE 1960 PROPOSED REDELINEATION
- 16. 28943 30763 32644 30425 31023 42167 30168 38250 29704 25794 26246 28070 0 10000 20000 30000 40000 50000 60000 70000 80000 90000 100000 STATEPARLIMENTARYEQ STATE 1974 REDELINEATION CYCLE
- 17. 42697 42757 47472 41482 54565 67663 42627 48583 42663 38098 34168 36141 0 10000 20000 30000 40000 50000 60000 70000 80000 90000 100000 STATEPARLIMENTARYEQ STATE 1986 (BASED ON 1984 REDELINEATION CYCLE)
- 18. 34733 47074 57703 48525 60416 59181 0 54560 57064 54358 45763 43091 43464 0 10000 20000 30000 40000 50000 60000 70000 80000 90000 100000 STATEPARLIMENTARYEQ STATE 1995 (BASED ON 1994 REDELINEATION CYCLE)
- 21. RIGGING THE BORDERS • Consequence 2 : Intrastate Malapportionment • No constraints – growing chasm between urban and rural divide • Creation of new seats by ignoring 13th Schedule (i.e. Sabah 2016 – 19) • Changing incumbent require more additional effort
- 22. RIGGING THE BORDERS 112 smallest seats determine the future of the country - 33% of elector population of Malaysia - To win GE14, minimum vote count is 16 – 17%
- 23. RIGGING BOUNDARIES • Consequence 3: Regular Gerrymandering This Photo by Unknown Author is license under CC BY-NC-ND
- 24. RIGGING OF BORDERS PAS won 2 seats from BN GE 2004 ELECTION RESULTS GE 1999 ELECTION RESULTS BN snatched back two PAS seats 2003 REDELINATION
- 25. RIGGING OF BORDERS PR held all three seats with marginal grip GE 2018 ELECTION RESULTS GE 2013 ELECTION RESULTS PH held all three seats with marginal grip 2016 REDELINATION
- 26. RIGGING THE BORDERS • Consequence 4: Pitting one constituency against another • Deepening the Urban – Rural Divide • Harming the voting power for the new Malay Heartland • Oversized Rural Constituency vs Undersized Rural Constituency (i.e. Kelantan)
- 27. RIGGING THE BORDERS 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% 1957 1970 1980 1991 2000 Evolving Urban Trends in Peninsular Malaysia Malay Chinese Indian Others Non Malaysians FEDERAL CONSTITUENC Y MALAY (%) CHINESE (%) INDIAN (%) BANGI 48 39 11 DAMANSARA 19 69 24 KLANG 26 55 17 KOTA RAJA 43 27 27 SUBANG 27 57 15 GOMBAK 75 11 11 PETALING JAYA 46 32 19 ISKANDAR PUTERI 37 50 12 KOTA MELAKA 37 57 4 KAPAR 70 15 14 * Inspired by Dr Chin Huat’s presentation to ERC on 21/2/2019 Adapted from U. Yaakob, T. Marson, & F. Masami “Ninety Years of Urbanization in Malaysia: A Geographical Investigation of Its Trends and Characteristics”
- 28. RIGGING THE BORDERS • Consequence 5: Difficulty in changing the incumbent
- 29. RIGGING THE BORDERS • Undi Rosak campaign was not practical back in GE14 • In 2008, with 8 uncontested seats, incumbent needed 15.4% to win GE12 • Change can only occur if you start winning the smallest seats
- 30. RIGGING THE BORDERS • Consequence 6: Penalising Constituency • Special Constituency Allocation meant for all MPs ,but in reality was exclusive for some • Under PH government, PH MPs receive RM500 000 and non PH receive RM100 000 for annual allocation
- 31. CONCLUSION • Knowing the story of my constituency involves knowing the boundaries and demographics within the area • Knowing the story of my constituency involves understanding constitutional principles that guides redelineation • Knowing the story of my constituency involves appreciating the short- and long- term consequences of rigged redelineation process
- 32. REFERENCES • Dr Wong Chin Huat’s presentation to ERC on 21/2/2019 • https://penanginstitute.org/programmes/political-studies-programme/malapportionment-in-the-2015-2016- redelineation-exercises/ • http://www.tindakmalaysia.org/persempadanan/towards-a-fairer-electoral-system-feb-2014-forum • SPR Malaysia (Past Electoral Boundaries, Election Results, Redelineation Reports & Pelan Warta) • Bersih 2.0 [OFFICIAL] • Department of Statistics of Malaysia • http://www.ritsumei.ac.jp/acd/re/k-rsc/hss/book/pdf/vol04_05.pdf • https://www.loyarburok.com/2011/10/11/peruntukan-challenge-court-question-government/ • https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/26227/ • https://library.fes.de/pdf-files/iez/01361005.pdf • https://says.com/my/news/politicians-have-mixed-reactions-to-pakatan-mps-getting-5-times-more-money- than-bn-mps
- 33. ACTIVITY 1: KNOWING MY CONSTITUENCY • Aim: • To learn what electoral data can offer • To learn how geographical elements relate to text and numerical data • To learn how to use one visualization tool to communicate insights
- 34. ACTIVITY 2: TOWARDS FAIRER BOUNDARIES • Aim: • Applying principles of 13th Schedule in formulating boundaries • Applying Electoral Quota to form constituency • Associating polling districts to form a constituency that respects local ties and enable the representative to serve the constituency • To justify the formation of proposed constituencies
Editor's Notes
- Tebrau – seat created in 1984 was held by BN until 2018. At GE14, it was 12th largest parliamentary constituency in Malaysia and it is gross overly sized (40% higher than Johor’s federal average). Secondly, it doesn’t respect local authority boundaries of Pasir Gudang and Johor Bahru council nor does it respect mukim boundaries. It is gerrymandered (1995 boundaries looked better) It is possibly home to every Johorean political scene (urban Johor Bahru, semi urban or growth areas, industrial lots, villages and Felda). Despite its gerrymandered and overpopulated nature, Tebrau experience Malaysian tsunami at constituency level and finally fell into PH in 2018. How did this happen
- The constitutional loophole which allowed EC not to abide by the principles of 13th schedule (such as checks on malapportionment and gerrymandering) transpired in this redelineation exercise whereby 5 undersized state constituencies will be created. Shockingly, the two rounds of recommendation did not make any attempt to increase the population size of those 5 proposed constituencies to be closer to state electoral quota (i.e. state average) The creation of 13 new constituencies resulted the following (based on two rounds of recommendations): 2 existing constituencies surrounding those new seats will become grossly undersized (More than - 25% (negative) from Electoral Quota) Around 8 constituencies (which is currently overpopulated) experience further erosion of voter value (More than + 25% above from the electoral quota) The disparity between urban and rural constituencies (at the DUN level) becomes starker thanks to the proposal of 13 new constituencies. Voters in urbanized areas around Kota Kinabalu, Sandakan and Tawau will see the voting value significantly slashed Sabah becomes one of the blatant cases of electoral unfairness in Malaysia when it comes to disparity of urban-rural voter value
- With the wave of Reformasi, Malay vote bank shifted towards PAS. PAS (which fielded Mahfuz Omar and Mat Sabu) seized two seats historically sided BN. The 2004 redelineation resulted reduction of Malay voter presence in Kuala Kedah and Pokok Sena. The Dun of Tanjong Seri which has very high presence of PAS voters was excised from Pokok Sena and parked under safe seat of Alor Setar Non Malay presence were increased in those two seats and subsequently BN won back those two seats However, the 2008 election tsunami resulted PAS recapturing those two seats and PKR seized Alor Star (now Alor Setar). Urbanised areas cutting across ethnic lines seeming to vote for PH over BN
- 14 out 20 Largest federal Constituencies in Malaysia have Malay plurality or Malay Majority presence in terms of voter composition