Cabinet, gerrymandering and size does matter

ARCHIVES 2013

By admin-s On May 17, 2013

Selangor, Penang and KL voters, despite paying the bulk of federal taxes, are comprehensively denied to have their MPs being elected as ministers and deputy ministers

Up to 40% of the ministers and deputy ministers are from constituencies which have less than 40 thousand voters

Lee Wee Tak

Najib has unveiled his latest cabinet line up. Much will be spoken about whether it can delivera nd transform (into what?),whether under-represented communities would be even more marginalised etc. Those are the hot issues but this blog post would look at the cabinet merely on number of votes, vis-a-vis the pending re-delineation exercise due end of the year.

Up to 40% of the ministers and deputy ministers are from constituencies which have less than 40 thousand voters

Most developed states are marginalized in the ministerial portfolio allocation even 7 positions were given to senators(hence “non-winnable” candidates not selected to stand for contest in GE) hence by bypassing the scrutiny of rakyat, denying the power of ballot box and an insult to other candidates, both from Pakatan Rakyat and Barisan Nasional themselves.

Above: Selangor, Penang and KL voters, despite paying the bulk of federal taxes, are comprehensively denied to have their MPs being elected as ministers and deputy ministers

Top 10 smallest Ministers constituencies merely emphasize the dismal and significantly unfair consequence of gerrymandering. We will have 8 ministers and 2 deputy ministers whose constituencies consist of less than 29,000 voters

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-OFeZYmkhhms/UZVKrJqUpSI/AAAAAAAABRE/oinB6FlZ0HM/s640/1+top+10+smallest.jpg

To put the issue in context, the 10 parliament constituencies above are easily dwarfed by state assembly seats won by newbie lady candidates; selected examples as follow:-

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1U9jGLVL3JM/UZVKuvOEnDI/AAAAAAAABRM/X6WglmzSug8/s640/2+women+DUNs.bmp

The above 3 choices were chose to compare against the candidacy and legitimacy of the Women, Family and Community Development Minister who hails from a constituency size of 27,416, a total which is much lower than the winning majority in Damansara Utara ADUN, let alone votes obtained or size of the DUN constituency.

Prime Minister Department has evolved significantly since the last decade and notably since the Najib administration whereby the size of the ministry and budget it commanded grew rapidly, even exceeding most other agencies. It also boast of 6 ministers hence the ministry with the most ambiguous and obscure terms of reference to the general public have the following 6 ministers; mostly from smallish constituencies and of course Klang Valley is unrepresented.