'Arrogant calls like Zahid's turned voters against BN'

New Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi's call to Malaysians unhappy with the 13th general election results to emigrate explains why the BN got its worst election results ever, says Gerakan.

It is "arrogant and disrespectful statements made by Umno leaders" like this that turned urban and non-Malay voters against the BN, Gerakan Youth secretary-general Dominic Lau said today.

As such, the BN leader said, Zahid (left) must retract his statement immediately and make a public apology to all Malaysians.

No one, including Zahid, had the right to tell any Malaysian to give up his or her citizenship, Lau added in a statement.

"As the government, it is (its) job to convince the dissenters why the general election results are legitimate, not by telling them to leave the country...

"Who are you to tell us to leave? This is in contrast to the 1Malaysia spirit preached by the prime minister. Also, where is the human rights spirit (that says) everyone is equal in this world?"

Lau's views were echoed by DAP's Puchong MP Gobind Singh Deo, who challenged Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak to declare whether he endorses Zahid's views.

This is especially so since Najib has boasted that Malaysia is the world's greatest democracy and that he is leading a transformation. 

"So how does this call now for Malaysians to leave the country demonstrate honesty on part of Najib and BN to change? Najib must respond...

"He should also accept that such a threat represents total weakness on part of his government to deal with matters of utmost concern to the people, such as the need for free and fair elections," Gobind said in a statement. 

Pakatan constituencies much larger than BN's

Zahid, who is also an Umno vice-president, argued in a column inUtusan Malaysia yesterday that BN won GE13 despite not garnering the popular vote because the country uses the first-past-the-post system.

"If this group (the opposition) wants to use the other system of single transferable vote as used in the republics, they should migrate to those countries to practise this kind of political belief," Zahid said in his Utusan posting.

This was also refuted by DAP's Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua (left), who said it is Malaysia's version of the first-past-the-post that is disputed, not the system itself.

Pua said that the Malaysian election system has been "excessively corrupted" over the decades, resulting in malapportionment.

"The gap between the constituencies with the least number of voters such as Putrajaya (15,791 - BN) and Padang Rengas (28,518 - BN) and those with the biggest populations such as Kapar (144,159 - PKR) and Serdang (133,139 - DAP) goes to prove that our electoral system is manipulated to give the ruling BN an unfair advantage.

"One will not find such ridiculous discrepancies between constituencies in other advanced, first-past-the-post democracies such as United Kingdom or Australia," he said. 

Pua added that the average size of constituencies won by Pakatan Rakyat has 77,655 voters while the average constituency won by BN has 46,510 voters.