LAWMAKERS from DAP and PAS have slammed Barisan Nasional’s move to revoke approvals for small-scale infrastructural projects, or known as BP1 projects, in parliamentary seats held by the opposition as undemocratic.

DAP’s Bukit Mertajam MP Steven Sim said it was “no coincidence” that the scrapping of all BP1 projects in opposition-held constituencies came less than three months after Federal Territories Minister Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor suggested to make Penang a federal territory.

He said the latest move announced by Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government Minister Noh Omar had proven that Umno and BN was “starving” opposition state governments as an undemocratic means to take over.

“For years, BN component parties including Gerakan, MCA, Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu in Sarawak and Umno in Sabah were in cohort with Najib Razak to quietly starve state governments into submission.

“I have pointed out in parliament during the 2017 Budget debate last year that although Penang consistently contributed 30 percent to our national trade balance every year from 2008-2015, our state only received an average of 0.07 percent from the federal budget annually,” he said in a statement today.

Sim, who is also director of Penang think-tank Penang Institute, said that statistics showed that in 2013, Penang and Selangor - both held by the opposition alliance Pakatan Harapan - paid the most direct and indirect taxes per capita compared to other states, but in the same year, both only received 0.07 percent and 0.31 percent of the federal budget from BN-controlled Putrajaya.

“As it is, the federal government has already been starving state governments. Now with the new Noh Omar’s ruling, the noose is tightened.

“This tactic prevents state governments from fulfilling its democratic duties to the people in the state, and instead have to submit to their Umno federal overlords,” he said.

“A vote for BN is a vote for undemocratic power grab.”

His objections to the move were echoed by fellow opposition lawmaker for Bukit Gantang, Idris Ahmad from PAS, who urged the people to reject the ruling coalition in the coming polls

In a Harakah Daily article yesterday, Idris said the time of “slavery” was over and the people were tired of leaders who behaved in undemocratic ways.

“Stop abusing the people who chose opposition representatives. That is their democratic right. Opposition parties are also legal entities and voted for by the people in elections,” he said in the article published by the PAS party organ.

Idris, an Islamic preacher, said opposition MPs were already denied the RM1 million funds for parliamentarians, when the money were channeled to Umno division chiefs instead.

“God willing, in the coming general elections, those who have supported BN all this time will now reject BN,” he said.

In a statement released yesterday, Noh Omar said there was no discrimination against opposition-led constituencies in the decision to scrap the BP.1 projects, adding that the affected projects were approved based on the applications by the local authorities and the constituencies’ elected representatives.

He added that he had approved a RM900,000 allocation to replace the roof of a public market belonging to the Taiping Municipal Council, although Taiping was a DAP seat. – April 21, 2017.