KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim (PN-Arau) has proposed that Malaysia emulate Singapore's group representation constituency (GRC) system to enhance the representation of minority ethnicities in Parliament.
He said it was time for Malaysia to consider a different electoral system, given that the existing one was determined in 1957 when the Federal Constitution came into force.
"If we implement the GRC system, it will ensure the minorities have adequate representation (in Parliament).
"For example, the Indian community makes up 6.6 per cent of the population and they are entitled to 16 seats (out of the 222 parliamentary seats). But if you look at the number of seats they currently have, it's not enough," he said during the debate session of the mid-term review of the 12th Malaysia Plan in the Dewan Rakyat.
Shahidan said that in Cambodia, the Muslim minority had two representatives in the government through the GRC system, a senior minister and a minister.
"The government and the Election Commission should reconsider Malaysia's electoral system because it was established in 1957 and there have been no changes since," he said.
In Singapore, GRC is a type of electoral division or constituency in which teams of candidates, instead of individual candidates, compete to be elected into Parliament as the MPs for the constituency.
The group may be made up of three to six individuals, as determined by Singapore's president.
At least one of the MPs in the group representing a GRC must belong to a minority community in Singapore, whether Malay, Indian or another minority.
The number of GRCs that can be designated as those belonging to the Malay community cannot be more than three-fifths the total number of GRCs.
The GRC system was established in 1988 to ensure that the minority communities in Singapore would always be represented in Parliament.
To ensure this, the republic's Parliamentary Elections Act requires that at least one-quarter of the total number of MPs must be representatives of GRCs.