ROS LIMITING NUMBERS OF POLITICAL PARTIES IS AGAINST DEMOCRACY - Government Should Reconsider ROS Proposal

I refer to the news report that the Registrar of Societies (ROS) had proposed to limit the numbers of political parties to the existing 33 parties in the country.

ROS’s Registrar Datuk Abdul Rahman Othman had announced on Sunday that the freeze on new applications was necessary to reduce politicking and to ensure political stability.

With due respect to the ROS’s Registrar, freezing new applications to form political parties & maintaining political parties to the existing 33 parties in country are not the right way to reduce politicking and maintaining our country’s political stability.

On the contrary, such move is against the fundamental principal of democracy in a democratic country like Malaysia.

The people’s choice and freedom of association as enshrined in our Federal Constitution should not be limited to just 33 political parties.

I do not see how the existence of more than 33 political parties would be a national threat to our country and the people. Thus, this should not be a reason for ROS to freeze the application to form new political parties.

ROS must understand that the numbers of political parties in our country would depend on the demand of the people. If the political party is irrelevant to our current political landscape, it would “close shop” as a matter of time and the numbers of political parties would naturally be reduced.

It is healthier and more democratic to allow the formation of any new political party and to let it die by “natural death” if it is irrelevant to the country’s political landscape.

Excessive control on the numbers of political parties would only result in the existence of illegal political parties if our country political landscape requires them. This would then lead to other problems for ROS to monitor them.

Thus, I hope that the government would re-study the proposal by ROS to limit the numbers of political parties to the existing 33 parties in the country. It would be best to reject ROS’s proposal.