by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, in Penang on Saturday, June 5, 1993:
Penang DAP to move a private members’ bill in next assembly meeting to amend the Penang State Constitution to increase six state assembly seats and a motion to ask Parliament to amend Federal Constitution to increase two new parliamentary seats for Penang
I have given notice that at the next Penang State Assembly meeting, I will move a private members’ bill to amend the Penang State Constitution to increase six state assembly seats (on the island) and a motion to ask Parliament to amend the Federal Constitution to increase two new parliamentary seats for Penang.
A separate private member’s bill to amend the Penang State Constitution to increase six state assembly seats and a motion asking for the amendment of the Federal Constitution to increase two parliamentary seats are necessary in view of the fact that the increase of parliamentary seats is a Federal and not a state matter.
After the cancellation of the electoral constituency redelineation exercise by the Election Commission in February, because of the DAP legal suit taking the Election Commission to declare its constituency review was undemocratic, illegal and unconstitutional, the Penang Chief Minister, Dr. Koh Tsu Koon, sais that State Government was seeking an extra parliamentary seat for Penang.
Is Dr. Koh Tsu Koon getting this extra parliamentary seat for Penang? If the Election Commission and the Federal Government had agreed, then in the constitution amendment bill passed by Parliament last month, Penang would have been given an extra parliamentary seat.
I hope that Dr. Koh Tsu Koon would give full support to the two-prong approach by the Penang DAP Assemblymen to secure an increase of two parliamentary and six state assembly constituencies in Penang by introducing the private members’ bill and motion in the State Assembly.
Dr. Koh Tsu Koon would again disappoint the people of Penang if he resorts to undemocratic tactics to ‘kill’ the DAP private member’s bill and motion in the forthcoming State Assembly meeting.
Let Dr. Koh Tsu Koon declare whether he supports the DAP private member’s bill to amend the State Constitution to increase six state assembly seats and the motion to request for amendment of the Federal Constitution to increase two new parliamentary seats for Penang.