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Do MCA, Gerakan objections to redelineation matter, asks DAP
Published:  Sep 21, 2016 10:01 AM
Updated: 5:49 AM

DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang has questioned if MCA and Gerakan's objections to the Election Commission's redelineation exercise, will carry any weight.

"Do they (MCA and Gerakan) really matter, as their leaders have long abandoned the important 'consensus' principle in BN and accepted a subsidiary and subordinate roles in the BN coalition?" Lim asked in a statement today.

He said MCA and Gerakan have not even dared to ask for an emergency BN supreme council meeting when the Umno-led government fastracked a bill by PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang, which could lead to the implementation of hudud in Kelantan.

As such, he said, the planned BN supreme council meeting on redelineation on Friday would just be a superfluous exercise.

Yesterday MCA president Liow Tiong Lai said the redelineation proposal was racially divisive, and that it would see the minority lose their political rights while the majority would dominate the voting process and the direction of the country.

Gerakan president Mah Siew Keong said the proposed redelineation exercise would affect the party's chances of winning in the 45 federal and state seats it contested.

The opposition had said that the redelineation was a mammoth gerrymandering exercise to help BN win the next general election, a charge the EC denies.

Lim demanded that the EC reveals all its redelineation drafts, and to show if it had drawn up a plan which would be in line with former commission chief Abdul Aziz Yusof's pledge that constituencies should not exceed 100,000 voters.

In Penang, DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng (photo) said called on MCA to oppose the latest redelineation exercise in cabinet, or leave BN or take full responsibility for supporting the coalition and its partner Umno.

“MCA should oppose the proposed constituency redelineation exercise in the cabinet, Parliament and in the courts, as well as call for a ban of all racially-based parties to prove the part is not a liar, unprincipled and a hypocrite,” Guan Eng said.

He said claims of EC perpetuating the racial divide is nothing new and have been going on for the last 60 years.

'Gerrymandering at unimaginable levels'

The difference now is that the EC has adopted gerrymandering to “unimaginable levels or depths”.

“MCA should take full responsibility for supporting BN and Umno in carrying out this national policy of divide and rule,” Guan Eng said in response to MCA president Liow Tiong Lai, who said that his party would oppose the proposed constituency redelineation exercise by EC.

MCA claimed that the EC will further “divide the races and promote racial extremism” because the minority lose their political rights while the majority will dominate the voting process and the direction of the country.

The crucial question, Guan Eng said, remains whether MCA dares to sacrifice its ministerial posts to leave BN to uphold this principle.

“The answer is that, for the past 60 years, is that MCA has continued to disappoint the people, by persistently abandoning its principles for positions in office,” he said.

He noted that Liow had agreed with DAP that Tony Pua’s parliamentary seat of Petaling Jaya Utara will see an increase of voters from 80,000 to 150,000.

This is a violation of the democratic principle of “one-person, one-vote”, he pointed out.

Liow had also agreed that the gerrymandering in favour of Umno would result in Lumut voters rising from the present 50 percent of Malay voters to 71 percent.

“If MCA is so intent in opposing racial extremism, why is it a racially-based party serving only the Chinese and supporting other racially-based parties such as Umno and MIC?” Lim asked.

“The time has come to require all political parties to open their doors to all Malaysians and not discriminate,” Guan Eng added.

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