By Yang San Yong

In the animal kingdom, like the practices of the underground society, they have their own designated boundary; it is always the understanding of each minding their own business. With that, we can witness marking the boundary by animal through their natural instinct, similar to the land surveyor carefully marking the boundary of our land.

According to the Nobel Economics laureate Dr. Kahneman’s “Thinking, Fast and Slow” (Taipei: Tian Xia 2013) Chapter 28 “Bad Events”, quoting the observation of biologists: When the animal’s territory is being encroached, they will react at all cost to destroy their attackers within 3 seconds.

This animal survivor principle can also be applied to those who wanted to change their old ways of doing things. For the purpose of reforming, expansion, conservation, tax reduction and to simplify the bureaucratic operation, Dr. Kahneman opined that in the process, surely there will be resistance.

Because of that, for every plan, there is always a winner and a loser. But, the theory of “loss aversion” is still a very strong conservative force; our motive on “loss aversion” is far greater than that of success. Dr. Kahneman pointed out the loser will always be more active, sometime to the extent of aggressively stopping the change. Ultimately, the loser altered the whole plan, and hence the countered productive results (page 394; 397).

Understanding this fact, what will be the opinion towards the suggestion raised by political scholar Dr Wong Chin Huat on reducing the parliamentary seats of Sabah and Sarawak? No matter what is the outcome of the current re-delineation process, or whether it is a tool to strengthen political power, will the people and their leaders in the two states of East Malaysia support such suggestion?

Dr Wong Chin Huat’s suggestion is well intended. More so, East Malaysia voters currently comprise only 1/6 of the total voters count, but having 25% of the total seats. If it is going to increase to 33% to safeguard these “safe deposit states”, it seems to be overcorrecting the current situation.

But, having referred to Dr Kahneman’s doctrine of “loss aversion” and after due consideration of the final possible gain and loss, those nervous politicians will soon be making lots of complaints, and will come forward with different opinion.
Once the ratio is reduced, like the reduction in the bank’s fixed deposits, will Sabah and Sarawak still have their political bargaining power? Having that in mind, if you are staying there, are you willing to reduce the current number of constituencies for the sake of the overall propriety of the political pattern and framework?

(Oriental Daily, 25-02-2014)