MUDA president Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman should question the opposition leader instead of the government over the lack of allocations for opposition MPs, Communications and Digital Minister Fahmi Fadzil said.

Slamming the Muar lawmaker for his accusations on the matter, Fahmi who is also the Pakatan Harapan (PH) communications director, said the opposition first has to submit a proposal to the government regarding the distribution of allocations to its MPs.

“On May 8, Deputy Prime Minister Fadillah Yusof said the opposition has to submit a proposal if they wish to get allocations 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 yet to receive the allocation, ask the opposition leader (Hamzah Zainudin),” he said in a video clip uploaded on his Facebook, today.

Yesterday, Syed Saddiq called the unity government a “Nato” (no action, talk only) government, accusing it of failing to implement reforms it had previously promised.

The Muar lawmaker raised three matters: allocations for opposition MPs, declaration of cabinet members’ assets, and dropping of corruption cases.

On asset declaration, he said Prime Minister 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 prime minister 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,” Fahmi said.

Regarding the discharge of Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s corruption charges, 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 (Law and Institutional Reform Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department 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 the Muda president’s accusations were not based on proper context.

Fahmi said 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 2022 general election. – Bernama, September 19, 2023.