The Allocation Discombobulation: Anwar, Saddiq And The 200km Solo Run

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Back when he was the Opposition leader, which wasn’t that far back, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim called for equal constituency allocations for all MPs; government and opposition.

In 2021, he said regardless whether MPs had signed the memorandum of understanding (MoU), their allocations should be equal.

At the time, there was an MoU in place between the federal government and Pakatan Harapan (PH). This was over a year after Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin took over the Prime Minister’s post from Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad in 2020.

Fast forward to September 2023, Anwar the Prime Minister criticised opposition MPs who claimed their constituencies were not getting any allocation.

Anwar denied this, saying allocations for constituencies and the people are being channeled through projects for the people.

The prime minister urged the opposition MPs to meet and discuss, stressing that the constituency allocation was not their right.

“If you don’t want to discuss, you can keep waiting. I will not approve,” he was quoted as saying by Astro Awani.

Fast forward to today, in the aftermath of Muar MP Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman running from Johor to Kuala Lumpur to raise money for his constituency, Deputy Prime Minister II Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof refused to comment.

He only offered a joke: “Wait for me to run (lari) first.”

Syed Saddiq completed his solo 200km run after claiming that opposition MPs faced discrimination in getting allocations for their constituencies from the federal government.

Calling his endeavour Langkah Muar, he managed to raise over RM100k from the run.

Syed Saddiq said the main objective of the run was to demand that MPs get RM20 million a term or RM4 million a year for their constituency. This was the amount that government MPs are getting.

He claimed that he had met and discussed with Anwar but received no response.

On Facebook, he lamented that Muar had been sidelined by the government for almost a year.

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