ALLOCATION FOR OPPOSITION MP NEED TO BE NEGOTIATED THROUGH REPRESENTATIVES, NOT SEPARATELY - PM ANWAR

KUALA LUMPUR, July 9 (Bernama) -- Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said allocations for opposition members of Parliament need to be negotiated with the elected representatives, not separately by each opposition MP.

He himself questioned why the process has become so complicated, when he has repeatedly stated that the government is ready to provide allocations, but it should be done according to the practice of any democratic country.

"The opposition, starting from the Opposition Leader, party representatives, should appoint a representative to discuss with Deputy Prime Minister 2 (Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof) whom we have assigned," he said during the Minister's Question Time in the Dewan Rakyat, here, today.

He said this in response to a supplementary question by Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman (MUDA-Muar) who wanted to know about the allocation for opposition MPs after he had personally consulted with Fadillah, but still had to wait for the decision of the Cabinet and the prime minister.

Anwar said the process was the same as it was done before when Bera Member of Parliament Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob was prime minister, and the government now, at that time, was in the opposition bloc.

"We are doing as was done before...from the beginning, meaning...parameters are explained first, actually it's not difficult, I remember this was due to a less positive attitude.

"I was (once) the Leader of the Opposition, at that time the opposition bloc was strong, the number was stronger, but at that time there was no sense of humility complex to meet the prime minister in the prime minister's office, at that time five of the opposition and five from the government were assigned," he said.

"So negotiate, I don't understand why this process is so difficult, go fix the dates, and start negotiating the conditions like in any democratic country," he said.

He also advised that it should be expedited to allow a decision to be finalised between the two parties.

"So I call on Pendang (Datuk Awang Hashim) to convey to all party representatives, to speed up the discussion so that this does not become the thing that causes the temperature in this House to go up. No need to run, jog.. just talk - it's done," he said in response to a supplementary question by Datuk Awang Hashim (PN-Pendang) regarding the same matter.

Anwar also asserted that there were no conditions placed in the negotiations that required opposition members of parliament to support him as prime minister in order to get allocations.

-- BERNAMA