KUCHING: The 19 Barisan Na­sional ( BN) par­lia­men­tar­i­ans will be given funds by the state gov­ern­ment to en­able them im­ple­ment devel­op­ment projects and also run the ser­vice cen­tres in their re­spec­tive con­stituen­cies.

       This is con­firmed by Chief Min­is­ter Datuk Pat­inggi Abang Jo­hari Tun Openg, who is also BN Sarawak chair­man.
     “Just like the assem­bly­men, each of them will be given the same amount of an­nual al­lo­ca­tion,” he told re­porters after the launch of Sarawak State Mosques Wel­fare Trust Board ( LAKMNS) ’ s e- ceme­tery web at Masjid Jamek here yes­ter­day.

      Ac­cord­ing to Abang Jo­hari, ev­ery BN MP would re­ceive an an­nual al­lo­ca­tion of RM1 mil­lion for the mi­nor ru­ral project (MRP) grant, and RM5 mil­lion for the ru­ral trans­for­ma­tion pro­gramme (RTP) grant, from the state gov­ern­ment.

       It is also an­nounced that each par­lia­men­tar­ian would also re­ceive an al­lo­ca­tion of RM250,000 per year from the state gov­ern­ment for them to man­age their re­spec­tive ser­vice cen­tres.

The state BN gov­ern­ment has de­cided to give out the funds to its Just like the assem­bly­men, each of them will be given the same amount of an­nual al­lo­ca­tion.

Datuk Pat­inggi Abang Jo­hari Tun Openg, Chief Min­is­ter and BN Sarawak chair­man

MPs in view of them be­ing in the op­po­si­tion at fed­eral level; thus, they might be de­prived of fed­eral fund­ing. The fed­eral Pakatan Hara­pan (PH)led gov­ern­ment has yet to make any de­ci­sion on the al­lo­ca­tion for the op­po­si­tion MPs; dur­ing the BN rule, the op­po­si­tion MPs and assem­bly­men were not given any al­lo­ca­tion.
       The an­nounce­ment by Abang Jo­hari was met with ap­proval and re­lief by sev­eral BN MPs in the state who were con­tacted by The Bor­neo Post yes­ter­day.

       “It is in­deed a wise move by Chief Min­is­ter Datuk Pat­inggi Abang Jo­hari Tun Openg to pro­vide the nec­es­sary fund­ing for our con­stituents, who are mostly ru­ral peo­ple. The fund­ing will def­i­nitely ease the bur­den of the 19 BN MPs in Sarawak, for them to serve the peo­ple,” said BN sec­re­tary-gen­eral Datuk Alexan­der Nanta Linggi.
        He also ex­pressed his hope that the present fed­eral gov­ern­ment would con­tinue to as­sist in the devel­op­ment of the ru­ral ar­eas in Sarawak, de­spite the state’s sta­tus now in the op­po­si­tion.

        Nanta – the for­mer deputy min­is­ter of ru­ral and re­gional devel­op­ment – pointed out that un­der the BN-led fed­eral gov­ern­ment, the states un­der the op­po­si­tion also re­ceived as­sis­tance when­ever the needs arose.
     “Nor­mally, the funds were chan­nelled either to the district of­fices or to the vil­lage security and devel­op­ment com­mit­tees (JKKKs) upon the ap­proval of their re­quests. So, there was never any dis­crim­i­na­tion against any op­po­si­tion state then,” said Nanta.

       He dis­closed that un­der the BN-led fed­eral gov­ern­ment, a BN back­bencher was al­lo­cated with RM6 mil­lion worth of ‘ Peo­ple-Friendly Projects’ ( PMR) fund, RM1.5 mil­lion for spe­cial projects, RM400,000 as emer­gency fund and an ad­di­tional RM100,000 for the ser­vice cen­tre.
“On top of that, each MP could seek fi­nan­cial as­sis­tance from spe­cific min­istries for spe­cific usae.  Like in my case be­fore, my (then) min­istry could ap­prove fund­ing for var­i­ous needs of the long­houses folk, such as vil­lage drainage and roof­ing for long­houses,” he said.
        For­mer Nat­u­ral Re­sources and En­vi­ron­men­tal min­is­ter Datuk Seri Dr Wan Ju­naidi Tuanku Jaa­far said the min­istry had al­lo­cated funds to the pre­vi­ously op­po­si­tion-led states such as Pe­nang, Se­lan­gor and Ke­lan­tan, when the coun­try was un­der BN ad­min­is­tra­tion.

“We hope that the PH-led gov­ern­ment would be fair to the peo­ple, es­pe­cially those liv­ing in the ru­ral ar­eas. Crit­i­cal projects should con­tinue and be im­ple­mented for the ben­e­fit of the peo­ple. Crit­i­cal projects such as drainage and street light­ings should not be stopped or hin­dered due to the change in ad­min­is­tra­tion.
“While we can’t com­ment on the PH-led fed­eral gov­ern­ment, at least our state gov­ern­ment has given the as­sur­ance that crit­i­cal projects will go on,” he stressed.
         Mean­while, Se­rian MP Datuk Seri Richard Riot Jaem said the fi­nan­cial as­sis­tance from the state gov­ern­ment would en­sure that those who sup­ported BN in the 14th gen­eral elec­tion would con­tinue to ben­e­fit from devel­op­ment projects.
“Each MP from ru­ral Sarawak, like my con­stituency Se­rian, looks after a large area. So, we need the fund­ing for the ben­e­fit of the peo­ple.   As an op­po­si­tion state now, it’s a wise de­ci­sion by the chief min­is­ter to al­lo­cate fund­ing for the BN MPs in Sarawak,” added Riot – the for­mer fed­eral hu­man re­sources min­is­ter.

“Each MP from ru­ral Sarawak, like my con­stituency Se­rian, looks after a large area. So, we need the fund­ing for the ben­e­fit of the peo­ple.  As an op­po­si­tion state now, it’s a wise de­ci­sion by the chief min­is­ter to al­lo­cate fund­ing for the BN MPs in Sarawak,” added Riot – the for­mer fed­eral hu­man re­sources min­is­ter.
       Pe­tra Jaya MP Datuk Seri Fadil­lah Yu­sof; Tourism, Arts, Cul­ture, Youth and Sports Min­is­ter Datuk Ab­dul Karim Rah­man Hamzah; As­sis­tant Min­is­ter of Ru­ral Elec­tric­ity Dr Ab­dul Rah­man Ju­naidi; De­mak Laut as­sem­bly­man Dr Ha­z­land Abang Hipni; Kuching North Datuk Ban­dar Datuk Abang Ab­dul Wa­hap Abang Ju­lai; Sarawak Is­lamic Coun­cil pres­i­dent Datu Misnu Taha; and LAKMNS hon­orary sec­re­tary Tan Sri Datuk Amar Bu­jang Nor wit­nessed the launch yes­ter­day and also joined the dis­tri­bu­tion of ‘ Bubur Masja- Sa’ – a savoury por­ridge usu­ally pre­pared dur­ing Ra­madan – at the state mosque later on.

The Borneo Post

19 May 2018

My comments:
I hope that everyone in each of the constituencies help one another to check how much allocation funds out of RM 1 million (MRP) + 5 million RTP for each constituency have been used accordingly and accountably.  Everybody should be prepared to ask to countercheck for accountability and transparency for the allocation funds just to make sure that the said funds are not embezzled.