Opposition Should Negotiate With Govt For Allocations Johari

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Dewan Rakyat speaker Johari Abdul has reportedly urged the opposition to negotiate with the federal government for financial allocations for its constituencies since the matter is under the prime minister’s discretion.
“We have no authority over special allocations from the Implementation Coordination Unit under the Prime Minister’s Department. That is not our jurisdiction; it is the prime minister’s prerogative,” the New Straits Times quoted him as saying yesterday.
“Just like during (former prime minister) Ismail Sabri (Yaakob’s) time, after several negotiations, the opposition also received allocations.
“That’s what the prime minister said; come and negotiate and tell us what you want. But you (opposition) didn’t do so,” he reportedly said.
He was responding to opposition leader Hamzah Zainudin’s claims a day earlier when the speaker was asked for an update regarding talks for constituency development funds for opposition MPs.
“That’s a good question, but how can I give an update when nothing has been done or when we haven’t even been invited to discuss the matter?
“The Federal Territories minister has announced allocations but it was given to them (government MPs and parliamentary coordinators), not to us. Right now, many parliamentary coordinators have been appointed,” Hamzah was quoted as saying on Thursday.
Open to discuss
During a parliamentary session last November, Deputy Prime Minister Fadillah Yusof stated that he remained open to discussions with opposition MPs regarding constituency allocations.
Deputy Prime Minister Fadillah YusofHe also noted that Muda’s Muar MP Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman was the only MP who had submitted a response to the memorandum of understanding and assured that he would respond in due course.
His remarks followed a report last September in which Perikatan Nasional leaders rejected Putrajaya’s draft agreement on constituency allocations for opposition MPs.
On Tuesday, however, Syed Saddiq also complained that there had been no progress despite five negotiations with Fadillah, which forced him to seek funding through other means such as modelling and fundraising runs.
Civil society groups such as Bersih have urged the government to provide MPs with equal constituency development funding regardless of their political affiliation. - Mkini

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