The Upcoming Re-Delineation Exercise : It’s Do or Die
Towards A New Malaysia
Apart from ensuring that each constituency “ought to be approximately equal” with exceptions, the EC has to also abide by another important requirement in the 13th Schedule. Part 1, Section 2(d)…
“…regard ought to be had to the inconveniences attendant on alterations of constituencies, and to themaintenance of local ties.”
What this mean is that the goal of achieving equal apportionment must be balanced with the need to ensure that communities are not split and that as far as possible these communities who shares common interests are kept intact.
Representative democracy is about having lawmakers representing different interests of the nation/state to deliberate on laws and policies. Thus, it would only be natural that each constituency should be adequately homogenous with similar interests.
There are several factors which could be considered as determinants of local ties.
1. Administrative boundaries – Local government plays a very important role in our daily lives. These local authorities or Pihak Berkuasa Tempatan (PBT) sets the assessment tax, local by-laws, grant licenses and permits, provide basic amenities, garbage collection as well as planning and overseeing developments. The quality of our life, for better or worse, can be determined by such local authorities and as such we have a lot in common when we share the same PBT. The boundaries of PBT in urban centres would be municipality council or “majlis” boundaries while in rural areas it would usually follow the district boundaries. Historically the Election Commission adheres to these boundaries and the electoral boundaries mirrors the PBT boundaries in many areas but there are also many places, especially urban centres where such considerations are overlooked.
2. Socio-economic factors – Keeping in mind that one of the goal of re-delineation is to ensure that voters are appropriately represented and their elected representative would lend voice to their unique interests, socio-economic status of the majority of voters in a constituency has to be a factor. Socio-economic indicators are things like income, education, occupation and types of housing. If several groups that are significantly different in terms of socio-economic status are placed together in the same constituency, an elected representative may have the dilemma of which communities’ interest should he/she speak up for especially when the interests are in conflict.
3. Natural or geographical boundaries – Natural boundaries created by rivers, seas, mountains, swamps and lakes usually does divide communities through the ages. Electoral boundaries should take heed of these as such factors do create accessibility issues and in the past, communication issues.
4. Artificial or man-made boundaries – With development mankind has increasingly stamped his mark on the landscape of the country. Artificial boundaries like highways, roads, canals, high-tension cables, railway tracks and large tracks of restricted areas are being created that would separate different communities.
