KUALA LUMPUR: An MP has claimed that the slow progress in talks between the government and the parliamentary opposition for equal development funds for all lawmakers is an act of “revenge politics”.

Muar MP Syed Saddiq Abdul Rahman said the failure to conclude an agreement lay with the government as the opposition and the administration have been in negotiations “for months”.

“As long as the government continues to set conditions to hold allocation negotiations, I would rather not waste time and immediately hold direct discussions.

“I have held multiple meetings with various government leaders to discuss this issue but there has yet to be any feedback.

“At this point, this is clearly revenge politics meant to hurt the people who voted for the opposition,” he told reporters after the launch of his book Jalan Tegak during the International Book Fair at the World Trade Centre Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

The book details his rise from university student to leader of his own political party.

Syed Saddiq stressed that the government’s planned memorandum of understanding (MOU) on constituency development funds should provide equal allocations for all MPs similar to the one under former prime minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob.

In September 2021, Ismail Sabri agreed to equal allocations for all MPs under a supply and confidence agreement with the Opposition at the time.

Most recently on April 25, Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof said the draft of the MOU would be done soon after over half a year of negotiations which supposedly began around October 2023.

https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2024/06/03/delay-in-talks-over-equal-mp-funds-is-revenge-politics