KUALA LUMPUR: The number of seats in the Dewan Rakyat should not be increased as it is more important to improve the quality of the members, said academicians and non-governmental organisations.
They said the upcoming redelineation exercise for constituencies should not result in more seats as there was no need for more.
Monash University's political scientist Prof James Chin said it was a bad idea to increase the number of parliamentary seats because it was more significant to have good quality MPs over quantity.
"As it is, the standard of our Parliament debate is not up to par.
"If we add more MPs, it will just remain the same," he told reporters at a public forum held at the Bar Council on Saturday.
It was reported that the Election Commission was looking at increasing the Parliament seats by about 15% to 20% in its redelineation exercise.
The new seats are to be carved out in Selangor, Johor, Perak, Kelantan, Terengganu and Kedah.
Bersih representative and political scientist Dr Wong Chin Huat said if there were more MPs, each would be competing for time to speak in the House.
"Instead of speaking about substantial issues, they are likely to try to get their 15 minutes of fame and capture attention," he said, adding that each MP had an average of only two hours and 31 minutes to speak in the Dewan session in 2012.
Wong said the ideal size of the Parliament was open to debate.
"However, the number of seats should not determine how the redelineation exercise should be done.
"It is like how prisons should be built only after authorities formulate laws, and not build prisons first and later decide what laws to be made to fill them up," he said.
Tindak Malaysia founder Wong Piang Yow said Malaysia had a bigger ratio of MPs compared its other neighbours in the South East Asia.
Umno's Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah and Opposition MPs Dr Hatta Ramli, Dr Ong Kian Ming and R. Sivarasa said they were in favour of adding more seats to address the imbalance in the number of voters in constituencies or malapportionment.
Saifuddin said seats should be added in the redelineation exercise to correct weaknesses in the past exercise in 2003.
"For example, one MP in Selangor represents an average of 93,000 voters while an MP in Pahang represents 52,000 voters," said the former Temerloh MP.
Kuala Krai MP Dr Hatta Ramli said there was no way to achieve proportionate numbers without adding seats.
Ong said if the seats were increased, it would test the robustness of the democratic process as it would require Barisan Nasional to discuss with Pakatan.
Sivarasa hoped Parliament would include a specific period for the Opposition affairs such as the tabling of Private Members' Bills, as practised in modern parliaments.
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