The Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (BERSIH) calls for the Federal Government and all State Governments to legislate a law for equitable constituency development fund (CDF) to all MPs and State Assemblypersons (ADUN) regardless of their political affiliation including opposition and independent members. This legislation is crucial as no or unequal CDF given to the Opposition is used as an excuse for them to defect and support the government and this is detrimental to our democratic system.

Sri Aman MP, Masir Kujat recently announced that he has left Party Sarawak Bersatu (PSB) to be an independent lawmaker . Masir Kujat in his statement, quoted by Malaysiakini, said that since he left Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) which is one of the component parties in Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS), he had very little allocation to cater to his constituency. By becoming Independent MP that supports Prime Minister Ismail Sabri, he hopes to get more allocations for his constituency.

Although Section 3.5 of the Memorandum of Understanding for Transformation and Political Stability (MOU) has provision to allocate CDF to MPs in the MOU but the allocations have not been legislated as law. The legislation of CDF law is a form of an upgrade of the MOU to be a law that will bind whoever becomes the government in the future.

BERSIH urges Barisan Nasional (BN) to immediately implement their manifesto used during the Melaka and Johor elections to enact equitable CDF law that will promise the continuity of the allocations. In Melaka, BN had promised to allocate this fund within 100 days after the forming of government. The state of Perak which pioneered the allocation of CDF to all ADUN can once again pave the way by enacting state enactment for equitable CDF.

BERSIH also urges Pakatan Harapan (PH) who signed the MOU and received CDF for their MPs to enact the same law to allocate equitable CDF to all ADUN regardless of their political affiliation. Currently the states that are governed by PH in Penang and Selangor only allocated unequal funding to the Opposition ADUN while in Negeri Sembilan the CDF is allocated to the opposition constituency coordinator.

BERSIH calls on the people to ensure political parties who govern the Federal or State Government to make equitable CDF as their main criteria for them to vote. Unequal allocation towards certain parties is unfair and in fact a form of punishment to the people for choosing parties that are not alligned with the ruling government.

Released by:

The Steering Committee of BERSIH