Some rather odd Maths

S

I wrote recently about the sad state of Science Education in Malaysia, now I’m beginning to see some examples of really bad Mathematics as well.

Bernama today reported that:

BN has the ability to obtain a two-third majority in the 13th general election (GE), that is expected any time soon, Department of Special Affairs (Jasa) director-general Fuad Hassan said.

He said to garner two-third majority, BN needs to draw at least 30 percent votes from the Chinese voters, and respectively 65 percent from the Malay and Indian voters, nationwide.

Now for the most part that sounds about right, until you realize that a two-third majority is 66% (well to be technically accurate it’s 66.66666…7%). Now how is it possible to garner a 66% majority if you only get 30% of the Chinese vote? More importantly, how do you get 66% of the total seats if you’re aiming for just 65% from the Malays and Indians. So you get 66% of the seats in Parliament without even having 66% of the popular vote….

Hmmm, this is either gerry-mandering, or someone in the Department of Special Affairs must have missed school the day they thought percentages.

The Bernama report here.

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