KOTA KINABALU: The Election Commission (EC) should be open to proposals from Sabah and Sarawak to increase the number of parliamentary seats for the Borneo states.
Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) secretary-general Datuk Julita Majungki said on Monday (Sept 19) the EC, as an independent body, should take a serious view of the proposal for the two states to have at least 35% of the Dewan Rakyat's 222 seats.
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Former deputy EC chairman Datuk Seri Wan Ahmad Wan Omar had said recently that Sabah and Sarawak's request for more parliamentary seats was unreasonable.
"As a former senior officer of the EC, he should respect the spirit of Malaysia's formation for the good of the Malaysian Parliament," Majungki said, adding that she hoped his statement was not a reflection of the EC's view.
Majungki said the nation's founding fathers had put in place safeguards to ensure that the peninsula would not have more than two-thirds of all parliamentary seats and would need the support of Sabah and Sarawak to approve changes to the Constitution.
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Based on records of discussions on the formation of Malaysia, Majungki said it was agreed that distribution of parliamentary seats among Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore (which left the federation in 1965) was balanced to ensure that their combined representation would be more than one-third of the Dewan Rakyat.
"This was to ensure that no laws could be passed by Malaya without the support of the non-Malaya components of the federation," she said.
She also said the Parliamentary Select Committee chaired by Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Sabah and Sarawak Affairs) and PBS president Datuk Seri Dr Maximus Ongkili and the Special Council on Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MKMA63) endorsed the seat increase.
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The select committee, formed to improve the parliamentary process in 2005, listed the increase as one of its 21 recommendations.
Many of the recommendations have since been adopted by the EC, including the lowering of voting age, anti-party hopping law and political funding, among others.
