The Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (Bersih 2.0) thanks the prime minister for heeding our call not to discriminate opposition MPs and welcomes the RM100,000 special allocation to be given to all opposition MPs, as confirmed by MP Wong Chen based on the letter received from the Prime Minister’s Office today, 30 March 2020.

The allocation will greatly enable the opposition MPs to address the needs of the people in their respective constituencies, especially during this critical time to cope with the COVID-19 outbreak. However, it is unknown how much is the special allocation given to government MPs. Bersih 2.0 reiterates that all elected MPs should receive equal funding regardless of political partisanship.

To resolve the issue of allocation to MPs once and for all, we further call upon Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin to institutionalise the reform of the allocation of the constituency development fund (CDF) by legal instrument to do away problems of opposition MPs often receive none or less than the government MPs do.

First, the distribution of CDF should be standard and equal among all elected MPs. Voters in the opposition-held constituencies should not be penalised for electing MPs who are not aligned with the ruling coalition.

Second, the administration of CDF should be governed with rigorous guidelines, monitoring and auditing, instead of solely based on the discretion of the MPs. This would help avoid abuse, wastage and corruption and allow voters to request funding without feeling personal obligations to the MPs.

We call upon the prime minister to end the discriminative practice against opposition representatives and make these reforms statutory before getting a taste of your own medicine as the opposition.

Released by,

Steering Committee of Bersih 2.0