YOURSAY 'As long as this practice is there, the elections in Malaysia is not fair, no matter what Mahathir says.'

Mahathir defends gerrymandering in polls

your say Oscar Kilo: It's confirmed. Former PM Dr Mahathir Mohamad has gone bonkers. He is totally wrong about the US senatorial system.

The number of senators is independent of the population. Every state is allotted two senators regardless of the population.

But in the House of Representatives, the apportionment of seats is proportionate to the population. The number of seats is reallocated according to the census every 10 years.

Thus California has 53 seats while New Jersey has 12. And the ratio of population to representative is maintained as uniformly as possible .

Dr M is obviously delusional when he says that the opposition is abusing government authority. Hello?

How can the opposition abuse government authority when they don't have that authority. Yes, they are making promises, but that certainly does not equate with abuse of authority!

Not Confused: Gerrymandering is wrong - no ifs, buts or maybes. Mahathir is just confirming the deliberate manipulation of constituencies, to the obvious benefit of BN, not the opposition.

This something we have all known, but now confirmed from the mouth of the master of double-speak.

The correction of this manipulation is just one of the demands of Bersih. Why do the has-beens in BN continue to treat us like idiots?

Hmmmmmmmm: Why must rural people have so much more say than city people? Just imagine you need the votes of almost 20 doctors against one farmer's.

The city people pay much more taxes than rural people and yet they have less say. What logic is this?

So by extension our country is being led by the rural people. No wonder it falls behind other countries year by year.

Whether the rural people are properly treated depends on the leaders. But take a look at the rural areas. What progress has been made even though they have much more representation than cities?

Absolom: Mahathir is letting us see what perverted sense of logic he has. He will go on to justify every wrong that he is credited with and pretend to have done everyone of them with noble intentions, when in actual fact, it was greed, for personal wealth, and more importantly power.

Perhaps it is about time for him to get help from a friend like Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe, to facilitate relocating there before all his abuses catch up with him.

Perhaps, all that gerrymandering is not enough for BN to win in the next election.

Up2U: Of course, "there is no clear line" on how to label what is abuse of power by the government and that is why in your crooked wisdom, you and BN were able to abuse the system at your whims and fancies.

Why was the constitutional safeguard on difference in constitutional electorates limited to 15% above or below the average constituency electorate removed? Because it was a hindrance to Umno's ambition.

Onyourtoes: Mahathir, US senators are elected. It is okay if Malaysia senators are also elected with each state, whether Perlis or Selangor, elects two senators to our Dewan Negara.

There shall be no more senators by appointment, how about that? I agree rural constituencies should be given some leverage, but by how much?

As much as 10 to 1? If you said BN is justified to give bigger representation to rural constituencies, how come after so many years the rural areas are still so undeveloped and the people so ignorant and deprived of amenities?

Your idea of bigger rural representation is not to safeguard the interests of rural people. Your idea is to dupe them into supporting you.

Development is bought about by a government that is fairly elected, competent and with high integrity. Development is not bought about by a government elected largely by the rural constituencies. Please get your logic right.

Kairos: Human rights principles and democracy says it is one person, one vote. Every vote carries equal weight. Where did Mahathir get the idea from that the rural folks should be compensated for their poverty by giving more power to their votes?

The real truth is that by keeping the constituencies in the rural areas small, BN can continue to intimidate the poor voters to vote for it or more commonly, use money to entice them to vote in BN's favour.

Gerrymandering is clearly a way of electoral manipulation and cheating. As long as this practice is there, the elections in Malaysia is not fair, no matter what Mahathir says. Nobody listens to him nowadays anyway.

Faz: This is another masterpiece from the master of deception.

The reality is for the manipulation to benefit Umno-BN so as to cling desperately to power even with dwindling support. His skewed logic is there for all to see, even on gerrymandering.

Mahathir tries to defend the indefensible

 

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