KOTA KINABALU – United Progressive Kinabalu Organisation (Upko) president Datuk Seri Wilfred Madius Tangau has called on Umno to work together with the Sabah party at the next Dewan Rakyat session to bring a private member’s bill for fair constituency development fund (CDF) distribution and test the government’s majority.
He invited Umno president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, who is Bagan Datuk MP, and his party colleagues in Parliament to bring up the CDF bill after the emergency.
“The provisions for the development of the (constituency) area should be fair and provided for by special law, not arbitrarily determined by the government,” he said in a statement today.
He said that if Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin wants to stop the strife between government parties and the opposition to fight the Covid-19 pandemic together and restore the economy, he must stop unfairly ignoring parliamentarians from the opposition, who now include those from Umno, to pressure them to join the government.
Madius, who is Tuaran MP, said he sympathises with Zahid, who is feeling the pinch now because Umno MPs have been given an allocation of only RM100,000, compared with the RM3.7 million provided for each government MP in the peninsula.
He said the message from Muhyiddin’s government is clear.
“He really wants to force Umno to kneel, apologise to Bersatu, and restore the majority of the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government using the difference in the allocation, which is more than RM3 million.
He added that Umno must cooperate with other opposition parties such as Upko to fight the discrimination.
Madius stressed that other Commonwealth countries like Kenya and Ghana have clear laws to ensure fair distribution of constituency funds.
“If Muhyiddin refuses to stop the practice of insulting people of the opposition, I hope for the sake of dignity that Umno and Upko can work together to bring a private member’s bill for fair CDF distribution and test the majority of the government at the next session,” he said.
Allocations held back
Madius also said that an allocation of RM100,000 for each elected opposition representative announced by Finance Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz during the presentation of Budget 2021 has not reached his constituency of Tuaran.
“If the money has been issued, then it has been lost midway. I did not receive even a ringgit,” he said.
“Now I have to use part of the MPs’ salary to pay my assistants and rent office space near Tang Dynasty Hotel in Berungis, Tuaran (in addition to online services), to serve my constituents.
“This is because the new state government has also terminated the allocation to pay the allowances of the officers at the service centre.
“In fact, the office of the Tuaran parliamentary service centre, which operates in the old building of the Tamparuli sub-district office, was taken back by the state government.”
Madius said discrimination against MPs and state assemblymen, except those under the current Perak government since December 2020, has been going on for decades.
“During the Barisan Nasional (BN) era, the elected opposition representatives did not get a single ringgit of CDF,” he said.
He said the short-lived Pakatan Harapan federal government reduced the allocation, but did not eliminate the discrimination. Under its rule, elected opposition representatives got RM100,000 while elected government representatives got RM500,000 in 2018, Madius added.
He thus called on Zahid to together oppose this heinous practice, whose injustice was once overlooked.
“Now, we must be fair in the fight for justice for all members of the house, not just ourselves. No opposition (party), whether Umno or Upko, should be ignored.
“Indeed, if we want to replace the Muhyiddin government, we must be fairer and more prudent than him. The people are tired of the narrow-minded party practices that oppress opposition parties.” – The Vibes, February 6, 2021
