KOTA Sentosa assemblyman Chong Chieng Jen wants the Sarawak government to reciprocate what the Pakatan Harapan-led federal government has done for Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) members of Parliament (MPs).
This was because during a press conference held at the State Legislative Assembly (DUN) complex, Chong who is also Sarawak DAP chairman, revealed that the PH government has agreed to give allocation to Opposition MPs.
According to him, there will be two types of allocation given by the federal government to elected representatives in the country.
Firstly a total of RM200,000 per annum will be given to all MPs across the board for the running of their service centres and secondly there will also be another RM500,000 to PH MPs and RM100,000 to Opposition MPs.
“We believe this is fair because when PH was still the Opposition, we did not receive any allocation from the ruling BN coalition. Now we are giving Opposition some money (20 per cent of the allocation given to each PH MPs for each Opposition MP) to help them,” Chong added.
Thus with what PH federal government has done for GPS MPs, Chong hopes that Sarawak government will also give allocation to PH assemblymen as well.
He even commented that he hoped that PH assemblyman will be given RM1.8 million because he claimed that Minister of Local Government and Housing Datuk Dr Sim Kui Hian has mentioned before that GPS (then Barisan Nasional) assemblymen were given RM9 million to take care of their areas every year.
“Considering that PH has given 20 per cent of allocation to Opposition MPs, we hope that Sarawak government would give 20 per cent of the allocation to PH assemblymen too.
“If it is true that GPS assemblymen were given RM9 million, we hope to get 20 per cent of the RM9 million which is RM1.8 million,” Chong said.
Thus he commented that the PH assemblymen of Sarawak are waiting for the Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg to reveal how much allocation will be given to PH assemblymen after this.