KOTA KINABALU: Komulakan UPKO has reiterated its stance on additional parliamentary and state seats to be created in Sabah under the upcoming re-delineation exercise by the Election Commission at the end of the year.
“As we are celebrating the golden jubilee of the formation of Malaysia this year, we are hoping to see a fairer re-delineation exercise which adheres to the spirit of the Malaysia Agreement and as stated in the Cobbold Commission, giving the Borneo states no less than 34% of the total parliamentary seats as in the first election in 1967,” said its chief, Ewon Benedick.
“Autonomy of the Borneo states was an important issue being brought up in the just concluded GE13 and that could be a reason for the swing of votes in several seats in Sabah. More and more Sabahans are concerned about their constitutional rights being eroded in the present situation,” he added in a statement yesterday.
Under the present electoral boundary, Peninsular Malaysia is allocated 165 seats as opposed to 56 to the Borneo states and one to Labuan, of the total 222 seats in Parliament.
According to Ewon, the Cobbold Commission Report which was the basis for the Malaysian Agreement clearly stated that ‘the representation of the Borneo territories in the Federal Parliament should take into account not only their populations but also their size and potentialities’.
In GE13, Sabah and Sarawak makes up 15% or 2,065,786 of the total 13,268,007 voters in Malaysia.
But a careful analysis of the geographical sizes of the two territories showed that the Borneo states with a land size of 198,081 sq km or 60% of the total 329,081 sq km (Peninsular Malaysia is 131,598 sq km) land size of Malaysia.
“We are also strongly pushing for a fairer distribution of state seats which reflect the true racial composition in Sabah as we have seen the systematic reduction of the non-Muslim native and Chinese dominated seats since the 1993 re-delineation exercise.
“Therefore, for Komulakan UPKO, we suggest at least six additional parliamentary seats and 12 additional state seats to be created under the new re-delineation exercise,” he said.
Ewon said some of the proposed additional parliamentary seats are Bengkoka, Sorob, Tamparuli, Inanam, Bukit Padang and Tambunan, and for the additional state seats are Sikuati, Kanibongan, Langkon, Wariu, Marabahai, Menggatal, Lokawi, Biau, Sunsuron, Apin-Apin, Telupid and Bukit Garam.
He said this when commenting on the statement by EC deputy chairman Datuk Wan Ahmad Wan Omar on Monday that the re-delineation exercise would be done at year end.
According to Ewon, the creation of the new seats will help the government to strengthen the effort to develop and transform the areas in line with the state’s development blueprint (Halatuju) and nation’s Vision 2020 with more funds and administrative focus being given directly to the areas concerned.
He said the proposal for additional parliamentary and state seats would also be a test for the Pakatan Rakyat lawmakers to prove their sincerity if they really mean their manifesto of respecting and giving more autonomy to Sabah and Sarawak.
“Pakatan Rakyat has nine lawmakers from the Sabah and Sarawak and they need the commitment of just one lawmaker from the peninsula to give a two-third vote to the new proposed election boundary by the EC, provided that it gives 34% to the Borneo states,” said Ewon.
“I supposed certain segment of the rakyat voted for the Pakatan Rakyat candidates because they wanted to give them a chance to prove what they have been hearing since four years ago, especially on the issue of autonomy.
“So if they cannot vote a motion that is in favour of the interest of the two states, then what is it? As I see it now, their peninsula counterparts are propagating for the one-vote-one-value which will further erode the interest of the two states if implemented,” he added.
Ewon said Komulakan UPKO would put forward its suggestion to the party to be submitted to the EC.
He also supported the move by the Prime Minister to the control and monitor the functions of the EC by a bipartisan parliament select committee.
“Enough has been said about the EC, but putting them under a parliament select committee will see the impartiality of the commission that is no longer questioned and strengthening the confidence of the people in the EC,” he said.