Give equal allocation to all MPs, Bersih urges PM

CORONAVIRUS | Electoral watchdog Bersih has urged Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin to give equal allocation to all MPs, regardless of their political affiliations.

Despite welcoming the special allocation of RM100,000 to be given to all opposition MPs announced by Muhyiddin (above), Bersih pointed out that it is not known how much allocation the government MPs are receiving.

“Bersih thanks the prime minister for heeding our call not to discriminate opposition MPs and welcomes the RM100,000 special allocation to be given to all opposition MPs, as confirmed by (Subang) MP Wong Chen based on the letter received from the Prime Minister’s Office today.

“The allocation will greatly enable the opposition MPs to address the needs of the people in their respective constituencies, especially during this critical time to cope with the Covid-19 outbreak.

“However, it is unknown how much in special allocation is being given to government MPs.

“Bersih reiterates that all elected MPs should receive equal funding regardless of political partisanship,” said the Bersih steering committee in a statement today.

Bersih then called upon Muhyiddin to institutionalise reforms to the allocation of the constituency development fund (CDF) to resolve the issue of opposition MPs often receiving none or less than the government MPs.

The distribution of the CDF should be standard and equal among all elected MPs, the group said.

“Voters in the opposition-held constituencies should not be penalised for electing MPs who are not aligned with the ruling coalition,” it said.

The CDF should also be governed by an administration with rigorous guidelines, monitoring and auditing, instead of solely based on the discretion of the MPs.

“This would help avoid abuse, wastage and corruption, and allow voters to request funding without feeling personal obligations to the MPs,” it said.

As such, Bersih called upon the prime minister to end the “discriminative practice” against opposition representatives and make these reforms statutory. - Mkini