THE addition of 17 new seats will promote social inclusivity and help close the development gap between urban and rural areas.
The move would ensure that all communities were fully connected and that the term ‘rural areas’ would become obsolete by 2030, said Katibas assemblyman Lidam Assan.
“Like areas undergoing rapid development, governance structure such as roads, schools, hospitals are becoming more complex and need more attention.
“It is therefore more effective and good governance as small areas come with improved focus and coordination to manage, improve accessibilities, responsiveness and accountability of their elected representatives,” he said when debating in support of the Dewan Undangan Negeri (Composition of Membership) Bill 2025, during the special DUN sitting here today (July 7).
Lidam added that the new additional seats would ensure balanced development as some rural constituencies were vast and underdeveloped.
He said the new constituencies could help focus development efforts which would provide fair allocation for development budgets to redress rural-urban balance development.
“This will be made possible as the elected representatives will have smaller areas and more manageable populations to cater to, reducing neglect,” he said.
The Kapit constituency, he said, was a good example with its land size of 6,331 sq km sparsely and unevenly distributed population of 43,981 according to the Department of Statistics Malaysia or 7 persons per sq km.
“Without redrawing or creating new constituencies, the elected representative may represent far more people than others, leading to unequal representation.
“This is very unfair to those in rural areas due to their remoteness,” said Lidam.
