Proposed new seven Sabah seats ill-conceived, says politician

By Ezra Haganez

KOTA KINABALU: The recently-announced proposal to create seven more new state constituencies in Sabah to make it 67, will further reduce the Christian-majority seats in the already muslim-dominated State Assembly, claims a leader of a local political party.

Parti Kerjasama Rakyat Sabah (PAKAR) deputy president, Paulus Gani, said as such the exercise is not a noble and clean exercise let alone reflect the true spirit of partnership in the country.

The balance between the major communities is lost, he said, explaining that the last time an exercise by the Federal-controlled SPR to increase the seats from 48 to current 60, the 20-20-8 sharing formula between non-muslim bumiputeras, muslim bumiputras and chinese, was changed to 34-18-8.