Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datk Seri Shahidan Kassim doesn’t really hold much confidence in the “one person, one vote” principle behind Malaysia’s democrating electoral system, and instead wants votes in the country to be proportioned according to racial demographics.
This was, he said, his personal opinion.
“We want to give fairness to the rakyat and one person one vote does not necessarily ensure that,” he told Parliament today.
He was responding to a supplementary question by Antony Loke (DAP-Seremban) on whether the Election Commission and the government were committed to the reforms adopted during the parliamentary select committee (PSC) on electoral reforms.
Loke had mentioned one person one vote, rural weightage and equal distribution of voters in constituencies as among the recommendations in the PSC report, adding that his question was on the value of each vote and not according to race.
Loke added that Shahidan didn’t understand the concept of “one person one vote”. Shahidan retorted that he has a PhD, and fully understood the concept.
Shahidan cited what he understood to be the Singaporean voting model, where it was one person one vote, but according to race.
“Chinese make up 23%, Bumiputeras make up 67% and Indian 7% of the Malaysian population.
“If we have 100 seats for example, that means Bumiputera including the Malays and Bumiputera of Sabah and Sarawak should get 67 seats, Chinese should get 23 seats, now they have 40.
“By right Indians should have 8 seats but now they have four,” he said, adding he supported a model where it should be one person one vote according to race.
Shahidan repeated his suggestions of a race-based voting system outside the House, claiming that it would eliminate racial conflicts in Malaysia for good.
Story: The Malaysian Insider
