IPOH, March 29 — The renaming of state seat Sitiawan to Astaka under the Election Commission’s (EC) constituency redelineation will affect its legacy, Perak DAP chairman Nga Kor Ming said today.

Nga said the name Sitiawan had been established since Independence and the region is rich in history.

"I don’t understand the logic why Sitiawan has to be changed to Astaka, which is a field’s name,” he said at a press conference. 

Nga said that it was a disgrace to the people of Sitiawan, currently held by DAP’s Datuk Ngeh Khoo Ham.

He urged all voters to ensure not only the loss of Barisan Nasional (BN) in the constituency, but also the loss of their election deposit. A candidate loses their deposit if they do not secure at least one-eighth of votes cast.

"Sitiawan is the only state seat in the country which DAP has never lost and that could be the reason why the name has been changed to Astaka.

"I am from Sitiawan and the people who are from there love the town. The name Sitiawan has been part of the country’s history since independence and it is not right for the name to be changed,” he said. 

Nga also said the justification for choosing the name of a field to replace Sitiawan is "ridiculous and illogical”.  

"According to the government policy, they are planning to bring in one million Bangladeshi workers into the country, so I’m questioning now, based on Election Commission logic: Can you change the name of the country to ‘Banglasia’ later?

"The government will not agree for obvious [reasons] and same goes to the people in Sitiawan. This shows how ridiculous the whole redelineation exercise is,” he added.

Based on the EC’s redelineation report, which was passed yesterday in the Dewan Rakyat, two parliamentary seats and two state seats, including Sitiawan, in Perak will have their names changed.

The Bagan Datok and Telok Intan parliament seats have been changed to Bagan Datuk and Teluk Intan respectively. The Kuala Sapetang state constituency has been changed to Kuala Sepetang. 

Separately, Nga also said Perak DAP will be carrying out a solidarity campaign to protest the suspension of four of its lawmakers from Parliament for questioning the redelineation report and 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal.

"We will have a roadshow for seven days starting from today around Perak to garner about 10,000 people to sign petitions of the protest,” he said.

Among the places where the roadshow will be held are Ipoh, Sitiawan, Taiping, Batu Gajah, Teluk Intan and Kampar.

On Wednesday, DAP stalwart Lim Kit Siang was suspended for six months from Parliament, while V. Sivakumar (Batu Gajah), Ngeh (Beruas) and Nga (Taiping) were suspended for 10 days by Dewan Rakyat Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia.