SUPP view on the proposed recommendations for the Federal and State constitutions in the State of Sarawak as\u00a0reviewed by the Election Commission in 2014<\/p>\n
The proposal recommends the increase of the State seats by 11 seats, from 71 to 82. The 11 seats are:<\/p>\n
Seats name Voters<\/p>\n
N13 Batu Kitang 20,107<\/p>\n
N17 Stakan 12,761<\/p>\n
N18 Serembu 9,677<\/p>\n
N23 Tribuh 13,160<\/p>\n
N26 Gedong 6,340<\/p>\n
N40 Kabong 9,759<\/p>\n
N57 Tellian 9,858<\/p>\n
N63 Selirik 10,560<\/p>\n
N66 Murum 7,648<\/p>\n
N 70 Samalaju 12,927<\/p>\n
N78 Long Lama 8,057<\/p>\n
The total number of voters in Sarawak is 1,109,134. This gives an average seat with 13,526 voters per seat.<\/p>\n
The seat with the least number of voters is N26 Gedong with 6,340 voters; the seat with the most voters is N54 Pelawan\u00a0with 31,388 voters. This is a ratio of 1 to 5.<\/p>\n
There are 34 seats where the number of voters are below 10,000. They are:<\/p>\n
1. N01 Opar 9,531<\/p>\n
2. N03 Tanjong Datu 9,301<\/p>\n
3. N18 Serembu 9,677<\/p>\n
4. N24 Sadong Jaya 6,752<\/p>\n
5. N.25 Simunjan 7,885<\/p>\n
6. N26 Gedong 6,340<\/p>\n
7. N27 Sebuyau 8,804<\/p>\n
8. N28 Lingga 8,731<\/p>\n
9. N29 Beting Maro 9,677<\/p>\n
10. N30 Balai Ringin 9,811<\/p>\n
11. N31 Bukit Begunan 9,266<\/p>\n
12. N34 Batang Ai 9,435<\/p>\n
13. N35 Saribas 9,296<\/p>\n
14. N36 Layar 8,835<\/p>\n
15. N37 Bukit Saban 8,676<\/p>\n
16. N38 Kalaka 7,324<\/p>\n
17. N40 Kabong 9,759<\/p>\n
18. N41 Kuala Rajang 9,286<\/p>\n
19. N42 Semop 9,739<\/p>\n
20. N43 Daro 8,554<\/p>\n
21. N44 Jemoreng 9,528<\/p>\n
22. N47 Pakan 9,923<\/p>\n
23. N49 Ngemah 8,930<\/p>\n
24. N56 Dalat 8,536<\/p>\n
25. N57 Tellian 9,858<\/p>\n
26. N58 Balingian 8,773<\/p>\n
27. N61 Pelagus 8,394<\/p>\n
28. N62 Katibas 9,601<\/p>\n
29. N64 Balleh 8,771<\/p>\n
30. N65 Belaga 7,218<\/p>\n
31. N66 Murum 7,648<\/p>\n
32. N77 Telang Usan 6,691<\/p>\n
PARTI RAKYAT BERSATU SARAWAK<\/p>\n
SARAWAK UNITED PEOPLES\u2019 PARTY<\/p>\n
GEREMPONG SA\u2019ATI RAYAT SARAWAK<\/p>\n
\u7802\u62c9\u8d8a\u4eba\u6c11\u8054\u5408\u515a<\/p>\n
NO. 7, JALAN TAN SRI ONG KEE HUI, 93300 KUCHING, SARAWAK. P.O.BOX 454, 93710 KUCHING, SARAWAK.<\/p>\n
TEL: 082-246999 (3 lines) FAX: 082-256510<\/p>\n
WEBSITE: http:\/\/www.supp.org.my<\/a> E-MAIL: supphq@yahoo.com<\/a><\/p>\n 33. N78 Long Lama 8,057<\/p>\n 34. N80 Batu Danau 8,661<\/p>\n In addition to the above 34 seats, there are another 18 seats where the number of voters are below the average of 13,\u00a0526. This means 52 out of 82 seats have number of voters below the average.<\/p>\n There are 13 seats where the number of voters are more than 20,000. They are:<\/p>\n 1. N06 Tupong 20,713<\/p>\n 2. N09 Padungan 22,873<\/p>\n 3. N10 Pending 30,881<\/p>\n 4. N11 Batu Lintang 24,640<\/p>\n 5. N12 Kota Sentosa 21,247<\/p>\n 6. N13 Batu Kitang 20,107<\/p>\n 7. N45 Repok 20,282<\/p>\n 8. N51 Bukit Assek 28,908<\/p>\n 9. N52 Dudong 28,569<\/p>\n 10. N54 Pelawan 31,388<\/p>\n 11. N73 Piasau 21,343<\/p>\n 12. N74 Pujut 26,532<\/p>\n 13. N.75 Senadin 26,257<\/p>\n The proposal does not live up to the cardinal principle of democracy, which is one man one vote. In the original<\/p>\n Constitution of Malaya in 1957 when Malaya just gained independence from Britain, this cardinal principle was\u00a0adhered to. The constitution then provided for weightage difference of 15% percent. The Malayan Constitution was\u00a0then amended in 1962 to increase the weightage difference by not more than half, that is the ratio of 1:2, to cater for the\u00a0urban and rural divide.<\/p>\n Paragraph (c) of section 2 of the Thirteenth Schedule of the then Malaya Constitution reads:<\/p>\n \u201cThe number of electors within each constituency ought to be approximately equal throughout the unit of\u00a0review except that, having regard to the greater difficulty of reaching electors in the country districts and\u00a0<\/b>other disadvantages facing rural constituencies, a measure of weightage for area ought to be given to\u00a0<\/b>such constituencies, to the extent that in some cases a rural constituency may contain as little as half of\u00a0<\/b>the electors of any urban constituency.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n The Constitutional amendment in 1973 completely did away with the weightage control by deleting the safeguard in the<\/p>\n last sentence underlined above. With it, full freedom for gerrymandering becomes legalized.<\/p>\n (Gerrymandering is a practice that attempts to establish a political advantage for a particular\u00a0party or group by manipulating constituency boundaries to create partisan advantaged\u00a0constituencies. The resulting constituency is known as a gerrymander.)<\/p>\n As a result, the number of popular votes gained does not reflect the number of seats won.<\/p>\n More seriously, it is denying its citizen his or a fair share in the decision making process.<\/p>\n Effectively, urban voters have been greatly dis-enfranchised, as their votes are equivalent\u00a0less than 20% of the rural man\u2019s vote.<\/p>\n Such arrangement gives a very heavy weightage to rural voters, which also consist makes up mainly of certain ethnic\u00a0communities. Rural areas have the lowest number of voters. Consequently, political power in Sarawak rest with the\u00a0rural seats and these communities.<\/p>\n The original intention for the differential in weightage was spelt out in the 1957Constitution – having regard to the\u00a0<\/b>greater difficulty of reaching electors in the country districts and other disadvantages facing rural constituencies.<\/b><\/p>\n The reason is based on the accessibility and geographical disadvantage of rural constituency. This states why the rural\u00a0area needs more representatives (hence lower voters).<\/p>\n Simply put, it means the wider and more remote geographical area of the rural communities need more attention and\u00a0needed more fund for development.<\/p>\n This is true for certain seats like in Ba\u2019Kelalan, Telang Usan and Belaga. This is not the case for coastal area seats. For\u00a0example, the size of the new seat N24 Gedong (6,340) is about the size of the new seat N13 Batu Kitang (20,107). Yet,\u00a0the voters of these seats have vastly different rights. A voter of Gedong has one vote but his or her counterpart at Batu\u00a0Kitang effectively has only 20% of the Gedong\u2019s vote.<\/p>\n This reasoning has its weaknesses. First, funding for the development of the rural area does not necessarily has to go in\u00a0line with the number of elected representatives. It is a matter of planning and budgeting. In fact many of the so-called\u00a0rural seats are now well developed and has all the basic utilities and infrastructure. The development of our state has\u00a0moved on for the last 52 years (which is more than half a century) from 1962 when the constitution was first amended\u00a0to put heavier weightage on rural seats. This reasoning no longer holds water.<\/p>\n Second, many rural dwellers have moved to urban areas and maintain a nominal address and home at their villages or\u00a0longhouses. The rural \u2013 urban migration is not only very real but is gathering pace. This is putting a big stress on the\u00a0urban infrastructure such as housing, transport, education and health care. On the contrary, the reverse is true \u2013 it is the\u00a0urban areas that need the most funding to improve and increase the infrastructure to cater for the ever-increasing\u00a0number of rural-urban migrants. Without a large increase in funding for the urban area, the rural folks are the one who\u00a0are most disadvantaged, as they can\u2019t rely on pubic facilities (which is starved of public funding) when they are already\u00a0hard up. Housing and transportation are the most obvious. Rural-urban migrants struggle to find suitable living space\u00a0and affordable public transport. They are forced to stay in city slum or far away from where they work and school for\u00a0their children.<\/p>\n Third, all the seats that have high voters are urban based. Urban voters are most educated, trained and exposed. It is a\u00a0great source of human talents and leaders. By giving urban voters more representatives who will most likely be more\u00a0educated and trained, will directly benefit the whole state. The quality of elected representatives will definitely improve.<\/p>\n Fourth, there is a perception of discrimination against certain ethnic community in favour of others. The figures show\u00a0that except for one seat, all the 13 seats with more than 20,000 voters are Chinese majority seats. In fact all the Chinese\u00a0majority seats have more than the average number of voters. This paints the picture that the system discriminates\u00a0against this community. This lead to resentment by this community as they see this as unfair.<\/p>\n This perception of unfairness has to be addressed should we all believe that the basic principle of natural justice – to be\u00a0fair in its principle and transparent in its processes. We have to believe that we are all one community \u2013 Sarawakians;\u00a0not only of any racial or ethnic community. It is only on this principle of fairness that lays the foundation of the whole\u00a0community that is progressive and moderate<\/b>. We are fully committed to the politics of reasoning and moderate\u00a0principle. Otherwise, our proclamation as being a moderate party runs hollow.<\/p>\n We proposed that this in balance be reversed over a period of time, beginning from this proposed amendment. It is\u00a0proposed that seats that have more than 20,000 voters be re-delineated to provide for new seats or shared with other\u00a0seats where the number of voters per seat is not more than 20,000. This will still give a ratio of 1 to 4 (N.26 Gedong\u00a0with the proposed maximum of 20,000 voters for a seat – 6,340:20,000), which is a reduction of 1 to 5 as it currently\u00a0stands.<\/p>\n Over a period of time this discrepancy is to be further reduced until we achieve the true principle and spirit of\u00a0democracy, that is \u2013 to each man a vote of same value.<\/p>\n Dato\u2019 Sebastian Ting Chiew Yew<\/p>\n Secretary General,<\/p>\n Sarawak United Peoples\u2019 Party.<\/p>\n Date: 15.1.2015<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" SUPP view on the proposed recommendations for the Federal and State constitutions in the State of Sarawak as\u00a0reviewed by the Election Commission in 2014 The proposal recommends the increase of the State seats by 11 seats, from 71 to 82. The 11 seats are: Seats name Voters N13 Batu Kitang 20,107 N17 Stakan 12,761 N18 Serembu 9,677 N23 Tribuh 13,160 N26 Gedong 6,340 N40 Kabong 9,759 N57 Tellian 9,858 N63 Selirik 10,560 N66 Murum 7,648 N 70 Samalaju 12,927 N78 Long Lama 8,057 The total number of voters in SarawakRead More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5318"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5318"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5318\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5319,"href":"https:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5318\/revisions\/5319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}