Kota Kinabalu: Sabah and Sarawak remain short of one-third representation in the Dewan Rakyat due to competing demands for additional parliamentary seats from Peninsular Malaysia whenever the two Borneo states seek an increase, which complicates efforts to rebalance parliamentary representation, said former Putatan Member of Parliament Datuk Dr Marcus M. Mojigoh.
He said the long-standing goal of achieving one-third representation for Sabah and Sarawak in Parliament would remain unattainable unless Peninsular Malaysia stop expanding its number of parliamentary seats whenever proposal to create new constituencies are approved tor the two East Malaysian states.
“I notice that whenever Sabah or Sarawak request additional parliamentary constituencies, the states in the Peninsular Malaysia also demand for more seats.
“Due to this, we have never been able to achieve the one-third allocation for Sabah and Sarawak,” he said to reporters when commenting on bringing this vital matter as a motion to get solid support from the 73 State assembly members.
Dr Marcus said the Peninsular Malaysia should be reminded that it took over seats that were previously allocated to Singapore and did not share those seats with Sabah and Sarawak.
Hence, he said the Members of Parliament (MPs) from Sabah and Sarawak have repeatedly raised the issue of one-third parliamentary representation for the two regions.
“In fact, they have had repeatedly raised the issue for decades of having one-third parliamentary representation for the two regions.
“Apart from myself as the then Putatan MP, I remember how the late Kinabatangan MP, Datuk Seri Bung Moktar Radin, being very vocal on increasing the parliamentary seats for Sabah, but unfortunately, our voices fell on deaf ears,” he said.
Following this, Dr Marcus said there is a need to urge all the 73 State assembly members to debate a motion to increase the parliamentary seats by one-third in the Parliament and to agree, unanimously without delay.
Subsequently, he urged the current Sabah government, led by Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Haji Noor, to continue pressing for the issue to be realised at Federal level.
“The matter has been raised many times. But there is no harm in continuing to bring it up in the Cabinet via the State Legislative Assembly and with the Federal Government,” he said.
Furthermore, he said it is timely to do so as the re-delineation exercise to add more parliamentary seats in Sabah is overdue and can be requested and proposed every eight to 10 years.
However, he cautioned that as long as one-third parliamentary representation for Sabah and Sarawak is not achieved, decision-making power in Parliament will remain skewed towards Peninsular Malaysia.
Dr Marcus also suggested that parliamentary constituencies in Sabah be divided based on racial composition to ensure all communities within an area are represented and no group is left behind.
“In places like Membakut, for example, the Kadazan community complained that they feel neglected by their MP, who is not a Kadazan. In Sipitang, the Lundayeh community is also unrepresented, and likewise the Rungus community in Kudat.
“I am saying it because these are the feedback that I get from the concerned communities,” he said, hinting that Membakut should be divided into more than one parliamentary seat to ensure proper representation of its communities.
He further proposed that constituencies with vast land areas—such as Penampang and Kinabatangan in Sabah, as well as Hulu Rajang in Sarawak—should have more than one parliamentary representative.
Dr Marcus pointed out that Malaysia’s smallest state, Melaka, has a total land area of just 1,650 square kilometres but is represented by six Members of Parliament.
In contrast, he said Kinabatangan—the largest parliamentary constituency in Sabah and the third largest in Malaysia—covers more than 18,000 square kilometres and is represented by only one MP.
He expressed disappointment over the situation, describing it as one of the major challenges facing Sabah MPs who seek to promote growth and development in their constituencies.
“Let’s compare Melaka and Kinabatangan. In Melaka, the six parliamentarians each receive funding to develop their constituencies. But in Kinabatangan, represented by only one MP, there is only a single allocation of parliamentary funding. Is that fair? Of course it isn’t.
“That is why many of our areas remain underdeveloped and our people continue to live in hardship, because our vast constituencies receive limited funding and attention,” he said.
Dr Marcus added that funding is not the only challenge faced by MPs in large constituencies such as Kinabatangan.
“Constituents feel neglected when their representative cannot give sufficient attention to their area—and rightly so.
“But in places like Kinabatangan, where an MP must travel for days along rough roads, cross rivers, and reach some locations only on foot, it is not an easy task. The situation faced by MPs in Sabah and Sarawak is incomparable to that of MPs in Peninsular Malaysia.
“That is why places like Kinabatangan should have more than one representative in Parliament,” he said, adding that the situation is even more pronounced in Sarawak.
He gave example of Hulu Rajang in Sarawak, which spans more than 34,000 square kilometres yet is represented by only one MP.
“How can one Member of Parliament effectively look after such a vast area, which is larger than several states in Peninsular Malaysia?” he asked.
