Having more members of Parliament does not mean they can effectively serve the rakyat better, especially when more MPs mean less speaking time for each in the August House, said Penang Institute fellow Wong Chin Huat.

Wong questioned why should the rakyat pay for more MPs when they would have less speaking time in Parliament, if the number of elected representatives was to be increased during the Election Commission’s (EC) redelineation exercise.

“MPs are entitled to a full pension after having served for six years. Why pay more for more MPs when you have a Parliament that cannot function effectively?” he asked.

Wong said the Malaysian Parliament met for 68 days in 2012, before the last general election, and each MP had an average of only two hours and 37 minutes per year to speak.

“Not all of them are able to speak. It is even harder for the opposition MPs to find a chance to speak,” said the well-known social activist.

“Even fewer people are able to speak during the verbal wars in Parliament where people are shouting, and no one is speaking,” added Wong, who was involved with the NGO Bersih.

Wong ( right ) cited the example of China, which he said has the world’s largest parliament with 2,000 members.

“They gather every year, with those representing the minorities wearing their cultural clothes but are the decisions in China made by these 2,000? They are mere rubber stamps,” said Wong.

“With such a large number of representatives, how to effectively debate anything? No way,” he added

“To make decisions, we cannot have many groups. When everyone talks, no one listens,” he quipped at a recent forum on ‘Electoral Reform and Delimitation’ held in Penang.

The forum, which was moderated by Bayan Baru MP Sim Tze Tzin, the speakers for which included Lembah Pantai MP Nurul Izzah Anwar and Tindak Malaysia’s PY Wong, was held at the Penang legislative assembly last week.

Wong was speaking on the possibility of the EC increasing the number of MPs during the redelineation exercise, before the 14th general election, which could be called as early as 2016, although it is not expected until 2018.

Malaysia had 144 MPs in 1965, when the population was 9.4 million, and in 2008, with three times a greater population at 26 million, the EC increased the number of seats to 222.

This is unlike the United States of America, where the number of its members in the House of Representatives remained at 435 even when its population grew to 314 million in 2013, from 19 million in 1911, Wong said.

“India, too, has a cap for MPs at 552 maximum for a population at 1.2 billion, and we may beat that country someday if we continue to increase our number of elected representatives merely based on the size of the population,” he added.