Compromise, understand government agenda for equal funds, Rafizi tells Opposition

PANDAN, Feb 4 — Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli said Opposition lawmakers must cooperate with the government’s agenda and stop stoking racial tension before making demands for equal funding with backbenchers.

He said such an arrangement was not unprecedented, citing the Memorandum of Understanding for Transformation and Political Stability Pakatan Harapan had signed with the Ismail Sabri administration in 2021.

“In the last term, there was the MoU between the government and Oppositions and specific matters were agreed on; for now, the Opposition did not ease up on race issues and attacks they aimed (at the government).

“The Opposition did not start any initiatives; they just sit there and wait for everything to be given to them,” he told reporters at the Pandan constituency Chinese New Year dinner tonight.

Rafizi, who is also the PKR deputy president, also added that the Opposition should also understand the country’s finances were weak as they were part of the government prior to the 15th general election.

Rafizi also argued that the unity government could not be bound to the PH election manifesto promising equal funding for all MPs as there were now several coalitions in power.

“If we cut the allocation for schools to give equal allowance to all MPs, the people will not like it,” he said, before telling the Opposition to propose ideas.

Earlier today, Perikatan Nasional insisted today Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim should not reduce the development allocation for MPs as the funds directly benefit Malaysians.

PN parliamentary whip Datuk Takiyuddin Hassan also pressed Anwar to guarantee equal allocations for Opposition lawmakers, saying this was contained in the Pakatan Harapan election manifesto.

This week, Anwar announced that the annual development allocation for backbencher MPs have been slashed from RM3.8 million to RM1.3million as the country's economy was still recovering.