Sibu MP warns DUN expansion risks GPS 'political tool'

Borneo Post

2 days ago

Oscar Ling
SIBU (July 15): Sibu MP Oscar Ling has cautioned that the expansion of the Sarawak State Legislative Assembly (DUN) from 82 to 99 seats could become a 'political tool' to strengthen Gabungan Parti Sarawak's (GPS) chances in elections if the redelineation process is not conducted fairly.
Ling stressed that state assembly seats are not only meant to represent the voice of the people in each constituency but also serve as a platform for determining who forms the government.
'If the increase in constituencies is merely to ensure every corner has a representative in the state assembly, but ignores the principle of 'one person, one vote', then such delineation can easily be exploited as a political tool to manipulate elections for greater advantage,' he said in a statement.
Moreover, Ling said having more seats means the value of each seat may be diluted, especially in a one-party dominant situation.
'With GPS already holding 80 out of 82 seats, any additional seats will mainly serve to appease component parties and consolidate its power. These extra seats will not meaningfully impact GPS's dominance and therefore have little added value,' he claimed.
Ling also claimed that based on the unofficial information currently available, constituencies with majority Chinese voters are still too few and do not reflect the true representation of the Chinese community in Sarawak's demographic structure.
'This raises the question of whether this contradicts GPS' stated goal of fairly reflecting the people's representation in different areas.
'Of course, to avoid falling into the trap of racial politics, constituency delineation should ideally adhere to the 'one person, one vote' principle, meaning the population size in each constituency should not differ too greatly.
'This would prevent significant imbalances in seat distribution by ethnicity, which could lead to suspicion among races,' he said.
Noting that Sarawak already has 82 state seats, Ling said if increasing parliamentary seats is the goal, then under the premise that each parliamentary seat consists of two state seats, the current 82 seats are sufficient to form 41 parliamentary constituencies.
'This would mean adding 10 new parliamentary seats to the existing 31, which would help Sarawak and Sabah push for the one-third parliamentary seat share in the future,' he added.
Ling also criticised the state government's claim that increasing state seats would effectively promote local development, arguing that this is not necessarily true.
'The current method of using Rural Transformation Programme (RTP) funds to drive rural development is not ideal, as projects vary greatly in quality and lack long-term planning.'
He suggested that the government should consider establishing a rural transformation agency to oversee proper planning for rural development instead of letting individual representatives carry out scattered, uncoordinated projects.
Ling also pointed out that more people from rural areas, especially the younger generation, are migrating to cities.
'Therefore, urban areas must become a key focus for Sarawak's future development, and the number of state seats should reflect urban population density.
'If constituency delineation continues to be based primarily on land area, urban areas will often be neglected.'
He called for a review of the state's previous 60/40 rural-urban development ratio, noting that people of all ethnicities are moving to cities in search of better lives.
'After all, Sarawak's future development will focus more on technology and green energy industries,' he added.
Ling emphasised that electoral delineation must be based on upholding the spirit of democracy, using constituency delineation to better demonstrate a progressive and mature democratic system — not to be exploited as a political tool.