KoSong: Do not take figures for granted

How should we judge a government?

In Malaysia, if you don't watch television or read newspapers, you are uninformed; but if you do, you are misinformed!

"If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing." - Malcolm X

Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience - Mark Twain

Why we should be against censorship in a court of law: Publicity is the very soul of justice … it keeps the judge himself, while trying, under trial. - Jeremy Bentham

"Our government is like a baby's alimentary canal, with a happy appetite at one end and no

responsibility at the other. " - Ronald Reagan

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Do not take figures for granted

The above table appeared in Malaysia Today, sourced from Sin Chew Jit Poh. I was trying to play around with the figures and realized that some figures are missing (PBRS), and number of seats as a percentage of the total was incorrect (SAPP). The total votes obtained by each party as a percentage of the total were inaccurately stated for the 3 Pakatan parties, to name just a few. Even the percentages of votes obtained by each party when added, do not add up! But the most important ie. the number of seats does add up, though the scenario has been slightly affected by events since a few defections. (Apology: PBRS won its only seat uncontested on nomination day which explains the missing figures mentioned by me)

Overall, we cannot escape the fact that Umno obtained almost 36% of the seats with just under 30% of total votes. The most striking in fact, was PBB which obtained 6.3% of the seats with just 1.6% of the total votes. The average number of votes per seat stands at less than 10,000 (14 seats with just 131,243 total votes)! From memory, Putrajaya has just over 5,000 voters, mainly civil servants!

In terms of total number of seats, the 6 major parties in order of importance are Umno (79), PKR (31), DAP (28), PAS (23), MCA (15), and PBB (14). The figures have since changed with some defections from PKR. There are now 5 so-called Independent MPs, friendly to BN, who formed an Independent Bloc (oxymoron?). It will be interesting to see where they stand at the next General Election.

An Independent is better than PPP, a party under BN, which currently has no MP! This was despite having obtained a total of 16,800 votes.

YB Teresa Kok (P122 Seputeh) had the biggest majority of 36,492 in GE12! She obtained a total of 47,230 votes. This would put to shame some of the lesser parties in BN coalition. (Figures revised from my original which were based on my memory).