LAWYER and social activist Charles Hector has launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim (PMX) for insisting that MPs “negotiate” with the Federal government over allocations.
In a recent blog post, Hector slammed PMX’s actions as demeaning towards the democratic principles, stating that it was “nonsense” that there shall be no additional Federal government allocations for constituencies that chose MPs/state assemblymen who are not part of the ruling coalition.
The legal eagle argued that these allocations should be distributed equally among all constituencies as a matter of right. To insist that MPs negotiate for it is a snub towards the very basis of democracy whereby citizens are free to elect the wakil rakyat of their choice.
It would seem that constituencies that did not vote for reps from the ruling coalition are being punished for exercising their democratic rights.
This is a throwback to when the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) government ruled whereby constituencies that did vote in government reps would inevitably be left out of development projects and be denied required funding for welfare and other pertinent needs.
Hector claims that the electorate expected a change when BN was ousted. Instead, there seems to be a climate of revenge with former opposition MPs who suffered such treatment seemingly hell bent on exacting revenge on former ruling party cohorts.
Such actions mean that Anwar has disappointed the electorate with unfulfilled promises of change and is instead re-visiting bad habits that were the prevailing norm when he was Deputy Prime Minister (DPM) with BN (during Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s administration).
The anti-death penalty proponent also argued that PMX was behaving like a dictator when using “I” instead of “we” when exercising executive power, contending that such power lay with the cabinet and not the PM alone.
Aside from insisting on some semblance of humility from the PKR president, Hector also suggested that Cabinet minutes be made available so it is clear whether a member of the Cabinet is expressing his/her personal opinion or is representative of government and agreed policy.
Surmising that it is demeaning for Anwar to insist on individual MPs to “beg” for their allocations, Hector further regards such actions as tantamount to an abuse of power in coercing MPs to support the unity government.
The outspoken lawyer likens the entire episode of bribing elected officials to ensure the continued survival of the fragile ruling coalition as something that the rakyat did not want or expect from the unity government. – Dec 8, 2023
Main pic credit: Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s Facebook
