Time for PH to legislate equal allocations after state poll defeats, says Projek Sama

KUALA LUMPUR – Projek Sama has urged the government to table a law on equal allocations for MPs when Parliament reconvenes in October, and for all state governments to do the same in their respective state assemblies.

The NGO said Pakatan Harapan's (PH) defeats in the Johor and Negeri Sembilan state elections should convince the coalition in particular that an equal allocations law is in its own long-term interest.

"If such a law is not enacted and PH ends up in the opposition after the next election, its MPs and assemblymen will face great difficulty serving their constituencies under an Umno-PAS dominated government," it said in a statement.

The group praised the Perak and Kelantan governments for already providing equal allocations to all assemblymen, although the practice has yet to be institutionalised.

"We urge both states to take their democratic leadership one step further by enshrining these equitable allocations in state law, thereby setting an undeniable precedent for the rest of Malaysia to follow," it said.

Projek Sama also called on Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim to immediately restore constituency allocation access for Subang MP Wong Chen and Petaling Jaya MP Lee Chean Chung.

Both are among the PKR MPs who attended the launch of Bersama, the new party formed by former PKR deputy president Rafizi Ramli. Wong and Lee were blocked from accessing the MyKhas portal, which manages special constituency allocations, in May.

The NGO rejected Anwar's argument that constituency allocations could be channelled "directly to the people" without involving MPs.

"If this were true, why did PH explicitly demand equal allocations for MPs in the 2021 memorandum of understanding with the Ismail Sabri Yaakob government?" it asked.