YOURSAY 'His defence of such unfair practices only serves to emphasise that the Umno-BN government has been, still is and will always be, illegitimate.'

Mahathir defends gerrymandering in polls

your say Al Tugauw: Finally it takes someone like Dr Mahathir Mohamad to admit Umno has been rigging elections all along, but he still tries to defend the indefensible.

Rural voters are more easily manipulated so Umno pretends to like them while at the same time exploiting their gullibility.

Undue rural weightage and gerrymandering must go if there is to be true reform of the Malaysian electoral system. Umno will be against such reform, as will their proxy, the Election Commission.

Such institutionalised rigging of then electoral system only favours Umno and perpetuates its unjust rule by unfair and illegal means.

Mahathir's defence of such illegal and unfair practices only serves to emphasise the point that the Umno-BN government has been, still is and will always be, illegitimate.

Why has no one, not even the Bar Council, brought the Umno-BN government to court for such illegal electoral practices even if the courts may be biased?

This goes to fundamental practice of democracy and no legitimate exercise of power by the government can flow from a flawed electoral system.

David Dass: We should aim to ensure proper representation of the people. Minorities have been marginalised because they are not represented.

There is a case for rural weightage but it must be sensible - 10,000 for one constituency and 100,000 for another is not reasonable - especially when there is a racial element to it.

At independence, the Malays were mainly a rural community. Today the majority of Malays are urban dwellers.

We should move away from race-based politics and focus on issues and on strategies to make us a modern advanced nation.

We should ensure that our elections are fair and free, and that whichever party comes to power, the government is transparent and governs for the people. It does not matter whether they are from the ruling or the opposition parties.

Quigonbond: You know, Mahathir with all his clever arguments is not going to help PM Najib Razak win the elections, because he's not the one running for PM. That is, if the argument is clever to begin with.

What Mahathir said basically turns the meaning of equal votes on its head. It opens up a can of worms, such as ‘are only rural people poor?' What about those who are struggling to make a living in urban areas, and don't have a kampong to fall back on?

What about Malaysians who need to extricate themselves from Malaysia because it's not the epitome of the land of the merits and fair opportunities?

I'm one of the small percentage of Malaysians paying lots of taxes. Should I get more votes instead?

In asking an old man to do his dirty work, Najib has shown he has no courage to be the real Malaysian PM. He doesn't even have the guts to compete in a free and fair elections.

Slumdog: You don't need to be a rocket scientist to see from the graph (below) that it takes more voters in Pakatan Rakyat electorates to select one member of parliament than it does in BN-held electorates.

Gerrymandering is one of the most foul and undemocratic mechanisms used by dictators, and in this case the Umno-BN government, to hold on to power.

If you follow Mahathir's fallacious logic, then Kapar should have 12 members of parliament, not one.

Higher representation in the legislature does not equate to better services and infrastructure (roads, schools, water and electricity) or health services in the rural areas. Just ask the kampong folks.

Armageddon: Do the Americans sell their identity cards to Mexicans or do they have postal voters or is their EC chief (if they have one) a member of Democrat or Republican or does the president go around distributing cash before elections?

However, Mahathir, one thing that we should follow the Americans is to have the a debate between Najib and Opposition Leader Anwar before the election.

Wira: The US legislature has both the Senate and House of Representatives - the upper and lower houses.

Only in the upper house the number of senators is fixed at two per state, regardless of size. There is no such arrangement for the US Congress which is the lower house.

There is a reason for such an arrangement, one of which is to make amendments to the constitution difficult just in case the bigger states bully the smaller ones. It is never to manipulate so as to win executive power to run the country.

They simply cannot because that power rests on the president who wins by one person, one vote in an electoral college system tying the number of electoral college votes to the total number of representatives, both senate and congress of that state.

In Malaysia, we have lopsided gerrymandering in both the Senate (never mind it's a retirement home padded with 'has been' BN politicians) and the lower house.

The doctor looks stupid with his senile argument.

Anonymous #30887039: The next thing he is going to say is - no need for election in name of some funny (apa nama) excuse.

They might even change the constitution to make sure they stay in power indefinitely.

Gerrymandering is wrong - no ifs, buts or maybes

 

The above is a selection of comments posted by Malaysiakini subscribers. Only paying subscribers can post comments. Over the past one year, Malaysiakinians have posted over 100,000 comments. Join the Malaysiakini community and help set the news agenda. Subscribe now .

 

chart on gerrymandering 02