DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng has condemned Minister of Plantation Industries and Commodities Khairuddin Aman Razali for declaring its objective to win a two-thirds majority in the next general election.
Khairuddin (above photo, right), who is from PAS, said he party hopes to achieve this with the help of its allies and redraw election boundaries in a way that will benefit Malays and Muslims.
"This is an unequivocal admission that PAS, through the PN government, will gerrymander constituencies at the expense of Malaysians who uphold parliamentary democracy, particularly non-Malays and non-Muslims.
"Already, the rights of non-Malays and non-Muslims are being threatened under a Perikatan Nasional government that uses race and religion to keep its tenuous hold on power.
"To make such a divisive and irresponsible declaration of intent to discriminate, deprive and deny the rights of non-Malays and non-Muslims, is both racist and a religious extremist," said Lim in a statement today.
The Bagan MP also pointed out that it contradicts the fundamental democratic principle of equal representation and value of "one-person, one-vote", a clear and present danger to our Malaysian identity and nation-building.
Yesterday, Khairuddin said the three Malay parties - PAS, Bersatu and Umno - will have to work together to achieve this goal.
"There are long-term (needs) that require us to win the next general election with a two-thirds majority. (Upon achieving this) the electoral boundaries need to be changed to benefit Muslims.
"We also need to increase the number of parliamentary seats in Malay-majority areas," he wrote on Facebook.
Based on Article 113(2)(ii) of the Federal Constitution, Parliament can pass new election boundaries without the approval of two-thirds of the Dewan Rakyat.
Electoral boundaries for Sarawak cannot be changed until 2023, followed by Sabah in 2025 and Peninsular Malaysia in 2026.
Khairuddin's suggestion that a two-thirds majority was needed possibly signalled that PAS intends to amend the Federal Constitution.
Lim was appalled, saying that there is no doubt that Khairudin's racist and religious extremist objective will be rejected by all right-thinking and justice-loving Malaysians, especially in Sabah and Sarawak.
"The problem is that the non-Muslims and non-Malays in the PN government will remain subservient and betray their own communities and the Federal Constitution to remain in power.
"The proposal by PAS and PN is clearly unconstitutional. Nothing is stated in the Federal Constitution that there can be redelineation of constituencies based on race and religion," he said.
"In fact, Schedule 13 of the Malaysian Constitution specifically prohibits malapportionment and gerrymandering of electoral boundaries.
"Whilst there may be a need to give some allowance to rural areas due to their geographic size and remoteness, there already exists severe malapportionment where voters in rural areas have greater voter weightage of up to seven times more compared to urban counterparts."
Lim's claims are borne out by parliamentary seats such as Bangi, Subang and Damansara, where victorious MPs Ong Kian Ming, Wong Chen and Tony Pua garnered more than 100,000 votes each in scoring sweeping majorities. In contrast, seats in rural Malay-majority areas such as Arau in Perlis are significantly smaller, with less than 40,000 voters casting ballots in GE14.
"Now PAS wants to put in an additional perversion to the value of one-person, one-vote and principle of equal representation in a democracy by lashing on the toxic mix of race and religion.
"This alarming future of electoral racial and religious "apartheid" will make Malaysian democracy a mockery.
"Should PAS succeed in securing a two-thirds majority in the coming general election, it is clear that they intend to amend the Federal Constitution to rig the elections in their favour.
"DAP opposes PAS vision of racial and religious electoral apartheid," said Lim.
Apartheid ("apartness" in the language of Afrikaans) was a system of legislation that upheld segregationist policies against non-white citizens of South Africa, essentially creating a different class of citizenship for different races.
Aside from Khairuddin, PAS vice-president Mohd Amar Nik Abdullah also revealed the party had made this proposal earlier, including during the Barisan Nasional (BN) administration.
"We have put forward this suggestion primarily because of the increase in the number of voters, especially in the East Coast, namely in Kelantan, Pahang and Terengganu as well as in parts of Kedah.
"There are parliamentary constituencies with up to 80,000 voters, so this can be a burden for the elected representative to serve the constituents effectively.
"The usual figure is between 20,000 and 30,000 constituents or at most 40,000 (only)," he claimed. - Mkini
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