KUALA LUMPUR – Muda president Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman should pose his question over the lack of allocations for opposition MPs to the opposition leader instead of the government, says Communications and Digital Minister Fahmi Fadzil.
Slamming the accusations made by the Muar MP over the matter, Fahmi who is also the Pakatan Harapan (PH) Communications director, said that the opposition had to first submit a proposal to the government regarding the distribution of allocations to their MPs.
“On May 8, Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof said that the opposition has to submit a proposal if they wish to get the allocation for MPs. Hence, the process is already in place… so they need to conclude the negotiations (over the matter).
“But the problem now is, until today, the opposition has yet to come forward with its proposal… so to YB Syed Saddiq and others, if you want to know why the opposition MPs have not yet received the allocation, ask the opposition leader (Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin),” he said in a video clip uploaded on his Facebook, today.
Yesterday, the Muar MP labelled the unity government as a ‘Nato’ (no action, talk only) government, accusing it of failing to implement several reforms as had been promised.
The three matters raised by Syed Saddiq involved the allocations for the opposition, the declaration of assets of Cabinet members, and the dropping of corruption cases.
On asset declarations, he said that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim had in January stressed that several agencies were working on making the process for declaring assets more clear and transparent and that the premier himself had already declared his assets in October 2022, worth more than RM11 million.
“The statement issued by the prime minister regarding asset declaration in January is in reference to the ongoing process to fine-tune the asset declaration process… for more information (Syed Saddiq) can submit his question in the MQT (minister’s question time) during the next full Parliament session,” he said.
On the dropping of Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s court case, Fahmi said the government was never involved in any legal decision made by the Attorney-General (AG).
“In any DAA (discharge amounting to an acquittal) or DNAA (discharge not amounting to an acquittal), whether it is Zahid’s case or in the case of (Tan Sri) Muhyiddin (Yassin) (Perikatan Nasional chairman) and others, the government has never been involved.
“The AG has explained, Datuk Seri Azalina Othman (Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform) has also explained, it’s the discretion of the AG under Article 145 (3) of the Federal Constitution,” he said.
Criticising Syed Saddiq’s accusations regarding Anwar’s statement on the latter’s commitment not to drop any corruption cases in court in a policy speech during the 16th PKR National Congress, Fahmi said that the Muda president’s accusations were not made based on the proper context.
Fahmi said that Anwar’s statement was in the context of the PH chairman’s efforts in 2020 and not after the formation of the unity government following the 15th General Election. – September 19, 2023