• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • RSS
  • Archives
  • Subscribe
The Nut Graph

The Nut Graph

Making Sense of Politics & Pop Culture

  • Projects
    • MP Watch
    • Found in Conversation
  • Current Issues
    • 6 Words
    • Commentary
    • Features
    • Found in Quotation
    • News
  • Columns
  • Interviews
    • Exclusives
    • Found in Malaysia
  • Multimedia
    • Audio
    • Pictures
    • Videos
  • Corrections
  • Letters to the Editor
  • Vault
    • Found in Translation

Govt mum on funding for MPs

By Deborah Loh

July 1, 2009

PETALING JAYA, 1 July 2009: Attempts to seek clarification about the Prime Minister’s Special Fund for parliamentarians have been futile despite several phone calls, SMSes and e-mail enquiries to the relevant officials.


Khalid Ramli (Source: isis.
org.my)
The Nut Graph wrote to Implementation Coordination Unit (ICU) director-general Tan Sri Khalid Ramli for a response to claims by some Pakatan Rakyat Members of Parliament and also a former Barisan Nasional (BN) MP that their applications to tap the fund were treated in an ad hoc manner.

However, Khalid conveyed through an aide in June that he would not reply. The Nut Graph report, Funding our MPs, was published without his comments.

The article highlighted the varying responses experienced by MPs in their requests for funds. MPs were either not told when the funds were disbursed, or were asked to seek funding from the PR-led state government, especially in a case where the MP was from PR.

A BN MP had his applications on behalf of non-Muslim houses of worship rejected, while requests for mosques were approved.


Mohamed Yakcop (Pic by Jeff Ooi;
source: Wiki commons)
The ICU falls under the Prime Minister’s Department and is responsible for approving MPs’ applications. The money is disbursed to the State Development Offices (SDOs) for project implementation. SDOs are federal agencies.

Enquiries were also sent to Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop, who oversees the ICU. To date, a week after questions were sent, no reply has been forthcoming.

An aide to Nor Mohamed said the minister, whose portfolio includes finance, was busy in meetings preparing for major policy changes on liberalising capital markets, which were announced yesterday on 30 June.

The same questions were posed to both the ICU director-general and to the minister. They were queries on:

  • the ICU’s official policy when approving applications by opposition MPs;
  • the official policy on applications for non-Muslim-related projects;
  • the timeframe for approvals, disbursement of funds, and project implementation; and
  • how the ICU ensures that there is no discrimination against opposition MPs.

Funding sources available to MPs for their constituencies is of public interest as it involves taxpayers’ money.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)

Related Stories

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Implementation Coordination Unit (ICU) director-general Tan Sri Khalid Ramli, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop, Prime Minister's Special Fund

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Eric says

    July 1, 2009 at 1:30 pm

    Thanks for the follow-up on this matter. This issue is clearly a limit to democracy in this country.

Primary Sidebar

Search

Twitter

My Tweets

Recent Comments

  • Wave33 on The Nut Graph stops publication
  • Adam on The Nut Graph stops publication
  • PSTan on The Nut Graph stops publication
  • PSTan on The Nut Graph stops publication
  • Andre Lai on The Nut Graph stops publication

Recent News

  • The Nut Graph stops publication
  • Nasihat tentang sepupu yang mengganggu perasaan
  • Uncommon Sense with Wong Chin Huat: The Sunni-Shia split and the answer to Muslim unity
  • Why Malaysia needs the national unity bills
  • Challenging government in the digital age: Lessons from Kidex
  • Najib’s failure
  • Babi, anjing, pondan: Jijik orang Islam Malaysia
  • Kidex and the law – What the government’s not telling you
  • Beyond Dyana Sofya
  • Uncommon Sense with Wong Chin Huat: Does Malaysia need hate speech laws?

Tags

Abdullah Ahmad Badawi Anwar Ibrahim Barisan Nasional BN Bukit Selambau by-election dap Deborah Loh Ding Jo-Ann Election Commission elections Found in Malaysia Found in Quotation Gan Pei Ling government high court Hishammuddin Hussein ISA islam Jacqueline Ann Surin Khairy Jamaluddin KW Mak Lim Guan Eng Malaysia MCA Menteri Besar MP Watch Muhyiddin Yassin muslim Najib Razak Pakatan Rakyat Parliament Parti Keadilan Rakyat pas Penang Perak PKR police politics prime minister Selangor Shanon Shah Umno Wong Chin Huat Zedeck Siew

Footer

  • About The Nut Graph
  • Who Are We?
  • Our Contributors
  • Past Contributors
  • Guest Contributors
  • Editorial Policy
  • Comments & Columns
  • Copyright Policy
  • Web Accessibility Policy
  • Privacy Policy
The Nut Graph

© 2023 The Nut Graph