MONTHLY Aliran Monthly : Vol.33(3) Page 1 For Justice, Freedom & Solidarity PP3739/12/2012(031205) ISSN 0127 - 5127 RM4.00 2013:Vol.33No.3 ELECTION FOCUS GE13 outcome: A people’s victory We should not just look at GE13's formal outcome but view it as a continuing process of democratisation, says Johan Saravanamuttu. ne should first pose the OO question, what sort of OOO ‘victory’ was the out- come of GE13 on 5 May 2013 for the Barisan Nasional(BN) and then ask whether it was truly a defeat for the Pakatan Rayat(PR). Many have raised the point of how the BN could be said to have won the election with only 47 per cent of the popular votes, while the PR went well past 50 per cent, customarily thought to be a marker of victory in most contests (See Table 3). However, electoral systems are often designed to give a clear majority of seats to the eventual winner thereby distort- Malapportionment: ing the result in terms of the popu- No. of Voters in BN and PR Seats, GE13 2013 lar vote. Malaysia’s first-past-the-post (FPTP) system is particularly no- torious for immense distortions of this sort. In the 1969 election, the Alliance collected only about 45 Average Contituency Size, PR:77,655 per cent of the popular vote but attained a simple majority in par- Average Contituency Size, BN:46,510 liament, winning 55 per cent of the 140 seats [1]. The 2013 out- come is quite similar. The BN has won about 47 per cent of the popu- lar vote but has garnered 60 per Figure 11Figure Aliran Monthly : Vol.33(3) Page 2 EDITOR'S NOTE What an election it was. A majority of Malaysians clearly wanted change. We must not just look at the CONTENTS formal outcome of the election but view it as a con- tinuing process of democratisation, says Johan Saravanamuttu in our cover story. COVER STORY ••• GE13 Outcome: A People's Victory 222 Certainly, the Malaysian people are already the win- ••• GE13: We Are Already The ners – even if electoral victory for their preferred Winners!Winners!Winners! 888 political party is usurped through a flawed elec- ••• Whither Neo-Feudalism? 999 toral system, says M M Pereira. In fact, the rakyat ••• Election In Sibu 111111 can take comfort that the process of change is now •• Election In Sibu 1111 firmly in place, asserts Henry Loh. There was no ••• GE13: Pliant Papers, betrayal by Chinese Malaysians either as no one Restless Hearts 131313 promised the BN their votes ahead of the polls, says ••• Malay Hesitation To Regime P Ramakrishnan. ChangeChangeChange 161616 ••• GE13: The Aftermath 181818 The electoral results show that a bold trend among ••• What Betrayal? 191919 young Malay voters – there is a break from the neo- ••• Musings On GE13 212121 feudal mindset of ‘hutang budi’ that once gripped ••• No Sobriety Or Sanity In the Malay community, says Azmil Tayeb. Former Judge's Statement 242424 Jeyakumar Devaraj adds that if we want to bring ••• Electoral Fraud: The View From about change, we also have to be sensitive to the Sungai Siput 262626 anxieties of the Malay community regarding what ••• Election Fraud Check: ‘change’ would entail. Borang 13 And Borang 14 282828 ••• An Implosion In The Offing! 404040 In another article, Jeyakumar lists his observations of the election campaign in Sungai Siput while REGULARS Prema Devaraj explains some of the checks and ••• Current Concerns 353535 forms used to reduce electoral fraud on polling day. Putting the spotlight on Sibu, Ngu Ik Tien finds that the politics of patronage and campaign propaganda have lost their hold on many urban voters. The big question now is can the BN evolve to retain 47 per cent of the popular vote in the next round. But if it fails to come up with a clear and clean aspi- ration, then the BN could be on its last legs, says Published by Haridas. Persatuan Aliran Kesedaran Negara (ALIRAN)(ALIRAN)(ALIRAN) Aliran is an organisation for ‘social democratic 103, Medan Penaga, 11600 Jelutong, reform’. We advocate freedom, justice and Penang, Malaysia. solidarity; comment critically on social issues, offer analysis and alternative ideas keeping in mind Tel: (04) 658 5251 Fax: (04) 658 5197 the national and global picture based on universal Email: [email protected] human rights and spiritual values. We are listed Please indicate if it is a letter to the editor on the on the roster of the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. Founded in 1977, Aliran Homepage : http://www.aliran.com welcomes all Malaysians above 21 to be members. Contact the Hon. Secretary or visit our webpage. Printed by Konway Industries Sdn. Bhd. Plot 78, Lebuhraya Kampung Jawa, 11900 Bayan Lepas, Penang Aliran Monthly : Vol.33(3) Page 3 TABLE 1: PARLIAMENTARY SEATS cent of the seats. STATES At Stake BN PR It has been pointed out by many analysts that the Perlis 3 3 0 Malaysian electoral system has been gerrymandered Kedah 1 5 1 0 5 to favour incumbents, and constituencies are ap- Penang 1 3 3 1 0 portioned to favour rural areas. This has worked Perak 2 4 1 2 1 2 well for the BN, and the Alliance before it, in all Kelantan 1 4 5 9 general elections since Independence. The rationale Terengganu 8 4 4 for greater rural weightage was not initially thought Pahang 1 4 1 0 4 to be unreasonable given that rural areas have scant Selangor 2 2 5 1 7 access to resources and communication and de- N.S 8 5 3 served some form of affirmative action. However the Melaka 6 4 2 Electoral Commission (EC) has over time completely Johor 2 6 2 1 5 ignored a 15 per cent limit on weighting given to Sabah 2 5 2 2 3 rural seats. This is the reason for our current huge Sarawak 3 1 2 5 6 distortion of results. TOTAL 2 2 2 1 3 3 8 9 However, what is really remarkable about the GE 13 is that Malaysia has finally become a two-party or TABLE 2: STATE SEATS two-coalition system. No third parties have won any seats at the parliamentary level of contestation ex- STATES At Stake BN PR cept the BN and PR. Most third parties and inde- Perlis 1 5 1 3 2 pendent candidates have lost badly – many their Kedah 3 6 2 1 1 5 deposits – at both state and federal levels, indicat- Penang 40 1 0 3 0 ing that the electorate has little appetite for spoilers. Perak 5 9 3 1 2 8 Kelantan 4 5 1 2 3 3 The popular vote Terengganu 3 2 1 7 1 5 Pahang 42 3 0 1 2 In 1969 and in this election in 2013, the Alliance Selangor 5 6 1 2 44 and the BN respectively failed to gain the popular N.S 3 6 2 2 1 4 vote but still retained power with a simple majority Melaka 2 8 2 1 7 of seats. This anomaly is explained by the BN mostly Johor 5 6 3 8 1 8 winning in predominantly rural and semi-rural ar- Sabah 60 48 1 2 eas (and with slimmer majorities) while the PR won Sarawak - - - convincingly in the urban areas, giving rise to what is now labelled a rural-urban divide in Malaysia’s TOTAL 5 0 5 2 7 4 2 3 0 electoral politics. Source: http://live.undi.info/index.html This is not to say that the PR did not win at all in TABLE 3: THE POPULAR VOTE rural areas, only that its wins were smaller and the same goes for BN in urban seats. The often-stated Peninsular Malaysia Total VoteVoteTotal Percentage fact about such lopsidedness is that Sarawak and Pakatan Rakyat 5,035,611 53.29 Sabah have been allocated 31 and 25 seats respec- tively, accounting for a quarter of the total parlia- Barisan Nasional 4,322,129 45.74 mentary seats and thus have been dubbed the “fixed Others 89,986 0.95 deposits’ for the BN. In this election, the two states Nationwide combined delivered 47 seats to the ruling coalition. Pakatan Rakyat 5,623,984 50.87 (See Table 1). Barisan Nasional 5,237,699 47.38 A stark example of the phenomenon of a mismatch Others 192,894 1.74 between the popular vote and seats at the state level Source: Azlan Zamhari, Malaysiakini of contestation can be found in the Perak results Aliran Monthly : Vol.33(3) Page 4 this time around. Pakatan won gal or judicial challenges should pated as they have been raised 54.75 percent of the popular vote follow. After all this has happened time and again over the past two in Perak compared to BN’s 45.25 before. If indeed, electoral fraud is years or more. However this did percent, but the latter was able to evident beyond acceptable limits, not stem the avalanche of audi- form the state government with 31 and ruled so by court decisions, ences at Pakatan rallies. The coa- elected representatives compared then by-elections should automati- lition offered the voters a Malay- to PR’s 28. cally be called by the EC. sia that would be free from cor- ruption and money politics. It A quick glance at Figure 1 below The third point regards the eligi- pledged to bring about economic will further confirm the point bility of voters and how many eli- transparency and accountability about the severe gible voters were actually disen- through democratic governance, malapportionment evident in franchised by the lack of a genu- which also implied the instituting Malaysia’s electoral constituen- ine effort of the EC to put them on of electoral reforms, advocated by cies.