PETALING JAYA: A civil society group has urged the Penang and Selangor governments to enact laws guaranteeing equitable constituency development fund (CDF) allocations, saying both Pakatan Harapan-led states have the means to do so immediately.
Projek Sama said both states had comfortable majorities and would not face the coalition bargaining constraints that could complicate reforms at the federal level.
“Thus, there is no reason an equitable CDF law cannot be passed in Penang and Selangor,” it said in a statement.
Projek Sama said this would show that PH was willing to apply in the states it controlled the same reforms it was pushing at the federal level.
“It would certainly strengthen PH’s moral authority to demand the same standard of Putrajaya and of every other state government in Malaysia,” it said.
The group also backed DAP chairman Gobind Singh Deo’s call for the government to honour PH’s 2022 election pledge to provide equal CDF allocations to all MPs.
It said the current system allowed CDF allocations to be given or withheld depending on political support, leaving public funds open to being used as leverage over elected representatives.
It said Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s announcement of an additional RM1 million for every parliamentary constituency was to be welcomed but did not address the underlying issue of executive discretion.
It warned that further delays in legislating equal CDF allocations would erode the credibility of PH’s other reform commitments ahead of the 16th general election.
