Bersih rues lack of constituency funds for opposition reps

 

Bersih has rued the lack of constituency funds for opposition MPs in yesterday’s re-tabling of Budget 2023.

“The promise of equal Constituency Development Fund (CDF) is also part of Pakatan Harapan’s manifesto.

“It is regrettable that Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim missed an opportunity to demonstrate his reformist credentials and what ‘Malaysia Madani’ should look like,” the electoral watchdog’s steering committee said in a statement today.

It is time for the government and opposition to sit down together and negotiate a law to provide equitable CDF, it added.

Bersih noted that Perikatan Nasional (PN), with 74 MPs, represented about 30 percent of voters (4,666,529) in the 15th general election (GE15).

The group said withholding CDF from them is akin to disrespecting the voters’ choice and the right to vote for their preferred representative.

“The CDF is needed by MPs to better serve their constituents and plug any local development needs not covered by state or federal programmes. It also includes a portion for the running of the constituency service centres.”

Yesterday, PN MPs Shahidan Kassim (Arau) and Wan Ahmad Fayhsal Wan Ahmad Kamal (Machang) took the government to task for not allocating constituency funds to opposition MPs.

Tactic could backfire

Bersih noted that depriving CDF has long been the tactic by successive governments to “punish” the opposition and aimed to stir discontent among voters towards opposition politicians.

Government funds were instead channelled to unelected coordinators aligned to government parties to win support, it said.

“Such tactic is then used to induce defections of opposition representatives and realignment of parties, as we have seen from the fall of BN after May 9, 2018, till the signing of the MOU between the Ismail Sabri Yaakob government and Harapan on September 13, 2021, and sadly, still on-going in Sabah.

“If anyone sincerely despises Sheraton Move, they should despise CDF discrimination against the opposition too - not crying foul when they are the victim but doing the same thing when in power.”

Depriving the opposition of CDF could also backfire on government parties in the upcoming state elections, Bersih warned further.

“We hope Anwar’s government is wise enough to not continue such a despicable, undemocratic, and shortsighted practice.”

If Anwar does not make the first move on the matter, Bersih said, opposition leader Hamzah Zainudin should prepare a private member’s bill on equitable CDF after seeking inputs from civil society groups, academics, and other stakeholders. - Mkini