KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 25 — Former Election Commission (EC) chairman Tan Sri Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman has joined Perkasa to keep the dominant Malay community in power, a news portal reported today.
Abdul Rashid reportedly opened the Malay right-wing group’s Federal Territory annual general meeting yesterday, where he was quoted as saying that the three redelineation exercises during his term at the EC, which were done “in a proper way”, had ensured the continued political dominance of the Malays.
“This land has always belonged to the Malays. It’s in the history,” Abdul Rashid was quoted as saying by The Malaysian Insider.
“We did it in a proper way. Not illegally. The people who lost in the past general elections claimed that we did it wrong. But if we did, how did Barisan Nasional (BN) lose to the opposition in Kelantan, Penang and Selangor?” he added, referring to the redrawing of electoral boundaries.
The EC — which has been accused of gerrymandering to give more weight to rural constituencies, where the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) typically enjoys strong support — has said that it will begin redrawing constituency lines at the end of the year.
Polls watchdog Bersih, however, warned the EC last September that a repeat of the massive street rallies for electoral reforms was “inevitable” if the electoral roll is not cleared of irregularities.
Abdul Rashid was quoted as saying yesterday that Malays have to retain their political power because Malaysia belongs to them, noting that the it was first called the Malay Federation, and after independence, it was changed to Malaya, and finally, the peninsula was known as West Malaysia after Malaysia was formed in 1963.
“Our aim is to get all the Malays of eligible age to register and to vote. Our numbers are bigger. Not only I want Malays to be in power, but also we must be stronger,” he reportedly said.
