Principles and Paradoxes

Principles and paradoxes
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Posted by admin
Wednesday, 07 October 2009 09:38
By Shad Saleem Faruqi, The Star
Malaysia can be proud that it has gone through 12 general elections. But there are many areas which can be improved for greater democracy.
ALLOWING the people to elect their representatives in Parliament is a sterling achievement of democracy and a firm pillar of good governance. Having said that, it must be noted that democracy is full of fables and foibles that we must be open about.
With a by-election in Bagan Pinang around the corner, it is opportune to examine the principles and paradoxes of our 54-year-old electoral system.
Electoral system: We have a simple plurality, first past the post or winner-take-all system which we emulated from the UK.
The candidate with the largest vote wins the electoral district. This is so even if, in a three- or four-cornered contest, he does not obtain more than 50% of the votes polled.
In the UK in nearly one-half, and in Malaysia in nearly one-third, of the constituencies, the simple plurality system grants victory to candidates who do not secure absolute majorities. Their legal victory cannot hide the problem of legitimacy.
No proportionality: At the natio-nal level this simple plurality system leads to a startling lack of proportionality between votes polled and seats won.
In the UK, in the 70s, the victorious Labour Party won a meagre 37% of the popular vote but 52% of the parliamentary seats.
In Malaysia, in 2004, Barisan Nasional won 63.9% of the popular vote but 90.4% of the Dewan Rakyat seats. In 2008, Barisan captured a bare 50.6% of the overall votes but a comfortable 63.06% of the parliamentary seats.
The alternative proportional representation system is more democratic and just. It requires constituencies to be territorially large, and to have 10 to 15 seats.
Each voter has only one vote and seats are awarded to political parties in proportion to their actual votes.
The great weakness of the proportional representation system is that it encourages a mushrooming of many political parties and prevents any one party from securing an absolute majority in the legislature.
This results in a weak government and difficulty in legislating laws. In most democracies, therefore, justice gives way to expediency.
One vote, one value: If the ideal of equality before the law in Article 8 of the Constitution is to be followed, then every citizen’s vote must carry equal weight.
This means that all constituencies must be approximately equal in population size.
Unfortunately, if this ideal was to be strictly followed, then all constituencies in rural areas, in hilly terrains as in Pahang, and in territorially large but thinly populated states as in Sabah and Sarawak, will have very few MPs.
The Constitution in 1957 therefore allowed rural constituencies to be one half of urban electoral districts.
In 1974, due to a constitutional amendment, rural constituencies could be “less than one half” of urban districts. The result is that there are massive disparities between the population size of voting districts.
Size of electorate: Due to a complex series of factors, nearly 74% of our population do not participate in elections. We need to address issues that keep this proportion so high.
First, unlike a vast majority of the nations where the voting age is 18, we allow citizens to vote only at age 21. Nearly 52% of the population is below 21.
Second, we do not have an automatic registration system. Several million people equaling 13% of the population do not register. Those that do, get to vote only when election arrives, by which time they are well past 21.
Third, voting is not compulsory. Nine percent of the citizens do not bother to cast their vote.
The way forward is to lower the voting age to 18. Registration should be automatic at the address stated on the MyKad.
If a voter wishes to change his voting place, the burden should be on him to fill the necessary forms manually or electronically.
Voting could be made compulsory and electronic voting should be considered with necessary safeguards against fraud.
A contentious issue is the system of postal voting for those like diplomats and members of the armed forces, who are unable to go to voting booths to express their electoral wishes.
In Bagan Pinang, 4,604 out of 13,664 voters are postal voters. Clearly their preference will decisively turn the tide in favour of one or the other candidate.
Election campaign: The rules relating to media coverage of political contestants are clearly weighed in favour of those who own or control the media.
There is a need for giving equal access to all political parties, to permit and facilitate public debates and to give voters a genuine choice between competing candidates.
With the rise of alternative means of communication and the impact of bloggers and the international media, ruling parties must come to terms with the need for more even-handed treatment of political opponents.
Police control over processions and assemblies needs to take note of rising sentiments for greater political space.
It must be remembered that underdogs are often anointed by a halo of sympathy because of the popular perception of unfair treatment.
Election expenses: Putting limits on the expenses of candidates between nomination date and election date does not prevent the hopefuls from splurging money in the period before nomination.
Putting caps on individual expenses without restricting party expenses does little to prevent electoral battles from degenerating into struggles between cheque books.
We need rules to require all political parties to disclose their sources of revenue and to make annual returns which should be accessible to the public.
Public corporations, statutory bodies and quangos should be banned from making political donations either directly or indirectly.
Malaysia has cause to be proud that it has successfully conducted 12 general elections since independence. Political pluralism is allowed.
There is no election violence. Opposition parties contest and win many seats and are at present in control of the four state legislatures, and nearly 38% of the seats at the Dewan Rakyat.
However, the march of time requires many adjustments of, and reforms to, the electoral system so that elections are perceived as fair as well as free.
> Prof Datuk Dr Shad Saleem Faruqi is Emeritus Professor of Law at UiTM and Visiting Professor at USM.