Tangau: Umno MPs should fight ‘unfair’ policy on allocations

Kota Kinabalu: Upko President Datuk Seri Wilfred Madius Tangau (pic) claimed a handful of senior Umno backbenchers appear to be treated like opposition MPs when it comes to allocations for their constituencies.

He said these MPs were receiving only RM100,000 instead of the RM3.7 million given to others.

Calling this an “unfair” practice, the Tuaran MP believed this was a form of punishment for these party leaders for not always seeing eye to eye with Perikatan Nasional (PN) leaders.

Tangau said he empathised with Umno President Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, who is Bagan Datuk MP, and others in his party who received this sum, an amount which is given to opposition MPs.

He said the others were Pekan MP Datuk Seri Najib Razak, Datuk Ahmad Maslan (Pontian), Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Aziz (Padang Rengas) and Datuk Ahmad Jazlan Yaakub (Machang).

Tangau said Zahid and the affected MPs should retaliate by tabling a private member’s bill for an equal distribution of constituency development allocation when the Dewan Rakyat convenes after the end of the emergency.

“The message by Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s government is clear — Umno, which was not entirely supportive of his government, is (considered) an opposition,” he said in a statement, Saturday.

“To punish Umno, he (Muhyiddin) was even willing to admit he is a ‘minority’ Prime Minister. He is trying to force Umno to kneel and apologise to PPBM and restore PN’s majority.

“If the Umno MPs are adamant about rejecting Muhyiddin’s leadership but do not want to lose the allocation of over RM3 million, then Umno must have a pact with other opposition parties like Upko to fight this discrimination.

“To Zahid, I say let’s fight this disgusting practice which previously had been overlooked.”

In an interview recently, Zahid had questioned why he and several other Umno MPs only received RM100,000 as allocation for this year.

He said if Muhyiddin actually wanted to stop the quarrel between government and opposition parties so that all could focus on fighting Covid-19, then he must stop this discriminatory practice.

Tangau said the RM100,000 allocation for opposition MPs, announced during the 2021 budget, had so far not reached his constituency.

“If the money has already been sent, it must have been lost somewhere because I have not even received one ringgit,” he said, adding he had to pay his aides and constituency office rental using his MP’s salary.