A former academician argued today that MCA’s downfall was its own doing, because the party had agreed to constitutional amendments in 1962 and 1973 that gave more weightage to rural voters.

 

Political scientist Lim Hong Hai said Tan Siew Sin, who was the (MCA) leader in those years, actually strongly defended those amendments in Parliament.  

 

“I would say that this was the height of folly - the most foolish mistake - for any political party to agree to the debasement and devaluation of its own political base. If its own base is reduced in importance, so must the party,”

 

He opined that the amendments had halved the political influence of urban Chinese voters, in addition to a declining population compared to other ethnic groups in Malaysia.

 

The resulting devaluation, among others, led to MCA and Gerakan finding itself with little bargaining power with Umno, and its very existence considered irrelevant by voters.

 

He said MCA should have realised that its survival depends on underscoring the importance of its political base through fairer redelineation and fair elections.

 

Lim, who formerly lectured at Universiti Sains Malaysia, said this at the 'Towards a Fairer Electoral System' forum/seminar organised by Tindak Malaysia and Bar Council.

Disrepancy limited to 15pct originally

He gave a presentation on the history of Malaysia’s electoral system.

As of Merdeka Day, Malaya’s constitution limits the discrepancy between the size of constituencies to 15 percent.

The limit was increased to 50 percent in the 1962 amendment, and was abolished altogether in 1973.

This was done because the Alliance - later BN - had suffered electoral setbacks at the time and wanted to shore up on its support in the rural Malay constituencies, he said.

The Election Commission (EC) also had absolute power to redeliniate constituencies, but this was subsequently removed in 1962.

Instead, the EC can only recommend new constituency boundaries to the prime minister, who then submits it to the Parliament for approval. If not approved, the prime minister may then make amendments to the boundaries and then resubmit it to Parliament.