Santiago was commenting on the issue of the Pakatan Harapan-led government giving PH parliamentarians a RM500,000 allocation and only RM100,000 for opposition MPs.
“For a democracy to flourish, we need an efficient and robust opposition to check the government of the day. People benefit as a result and thus it promotes people’s interests.
“The future of a new Malaysia should be about ideas, policies and actions that promote democracy and people’s interests. This can come from a caring government and a critical opposition.”
Meanwhile, PKR’s Selangau MP Baru Bian said although the allocations weren’t equal, it was a good start, seeing as to how in the past, opposition MPs didn’t get any allocations.
“My understanding is that these allocations aren’t for development but to help MPs upkeep their service centre and provide some minor aid.
Baru said it also didn’t mean that the development in opposition areas would be sidelined as he believed the allocations for MPs given by PH were separate from the government’s development plans.
This, he added, was unlike during Barisan Nasional’s time when MPs were given a special RM5 million annual allocation in development funds to carry out projects.
DAP’s Kepong MP Lim Lip Eng said the RM100,00 allocation for opposition MPs was fair as they weren’t bound by PH’s rules.
“If they need more, they can always come and talk to us. We are not like BN which didn’t want to talk to us. They can come out with a working paper and proposal for extra funds.”
He added that if any NGOs in opposition-held areas needed allocations, they could also by-pass their MPs and go directly to PH.
Previously, Engage, a pro-reform NGO, had voiced unhappiness over the unequal MP allocations.
Its chairman, Thomas Fann, acknowledged the provision of funds for the opposition by PH was an improvement over that of the former BN government, which had not given any allocations to opposition MPs at the time.
However, he added: “Shouldn’t all MPs be accorded the same treatment and dignity befitting their office, regardless of which political party they belonged to? This is simply because of the fact that they were elected by their constituents to represent them.”
Fann said PH had, in promise 16 of its manifesto, pledged to provide funding to all MPs, based on a transparent formula to enable them to carry out their constituency responsibilities and run their service centres.