Time to guarantee equal funds for MPs, says Kiandee

Bersatu vice-president Ronald Kiandee says a law on equal constituency funds would ensure that whoever is in power must abide by it.

PETALING JAYA: It is time that equal allocations for all MPs is institutionalised and made mandatory rather than based on the discretion of the sitting prime minister, says an opposition leader.

Bersatu vice-president Ronald Kiandee said the requirement for equal funds to be allocated for both government and opposition MPs should be made a law so that whoever is in power must abide by it.

“That means whoever forms the federal government or sits as prime minister, they have to give the same amount of allocations for all MPs,” he told FMT.

Kiandee, the Beluran MP and a former Dewan Rakyat deputy speaker, added that equal funds would recognise the opposition’s role as the check and balance on the government.

Having repeated the call for equal funds since the formation of the unity government, the opposition was told by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim to hold talks with Putrajaya as Pakatan Harapan did with the government of Ismail Sabri Yaakob.

Earlier today, deputy prime minister Fadillah Yusof said the government will discuss the allocations for opposition MPs next Wednesday, following his meeting with opposition leader Hamzah Zainudin on March 19.