By Shikin Louis
KUCHING, July 7: Expecting 82 elected representatives to serve a population of nearly three million is like asking one doctor to treat 10,000 patients.
This was the powerful analogy delivered by Lingga assemblywoman Dayang Noorazah Awang Sohor when debating in support of the Dewan Undangan Negeri (Composition of Membership) Bill 2025 in the Sarawak Legislative Assembly (DUN) today.
While she acknowledged the financial costs that come along with the proposed increase of Sarawak’s State seats from 82 to 99, she argued that under-representation leads to mismanaged development, duplicated projects and bureaucratic wastage—all of which are far more expensive in the long run.
She pointed out that the proposed increase of 17 seats represents just over a 20 per cent jump in membership, while the State’s voter population has doubled—an increase of over 100 per cent—since the last redelineation in 2015, particularly following the lowering of the voting age to 18.
“So, if cost is the real concern, what’s more wasteful? Slightly more representatives or 82 overburdened [elected representatives] stretched to their breaking point, struggling to deliver efficient governance? That’s not leadership. That’s mismanagement disguised as toughness.
“We don’t ask doctors to treat 10,000 patients each—we hire more doctors. We don’t ask one firefighter to manage ten districts—we station more,” she stressed.
Dayang Noorazah further warned against romanticising overwork, saying that doing so leads only to burnout, diluted effectiveness and unserved constituents.
She also said the real cost in this matter is the rural constituencies going decades without proper representation.
“It is a single ADUN trying to juggle the needs of 200 scattered villages because we, in this house, refused to modernise our representational structure. And yet, we sit here in comfort, potentially denying these communities their voice – simply to avoid the cost of another seat?
“This is not bloated politics; it is rectifying a systemic imbalance, ensuring that all Sarawakians have a fair and effective voice in their government,” she added.
Dayang Noorazah also invoked Sarawak’s constitutional right to determine its own legislature, citing the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) as the foundation for such autonomy.
“When this Dewan seeks to increase its number of elected members, we are not begging for federal permission, hat in hand. We are exercising a right that is enshrined in the very foundation of Malaysia’s formation. We are acting within the bounds of our inherent authority.
“To oppose this bill, then, is nothing short of betraying the very spirit of MA63. It is to implicitly argue that Sarawak does not deserve the power to manage its own democratic architecture–that we are somehow incapable of self-determination,” she emphasised. – DayakDaily
