Oscar Ling
SIBU (July 1): The Federal Government should consider the population in each parliamentary constituency in allocating funds to its member of parliament, Sibu MP Oscar Ling said.
He pointed out based on its population, Sibu constituency needs at least RM1 million to get the people sufficiently covered for the food aids and other financial assistance during the Movement Control Order (MCO).
“If the Federal Government cannot increase the allocation for Sibu, I do not think I can do big scale distributions like before and we can only deal on call-in basis,” he added.
Ling was commenting on the RM300,000 allocation for all MPs to implement the `food on the table’ programme in their respective areas under the National People’s Well-being and Economic Recovery Package (PEMULIH) as announced by Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin on Monday.
Describing the allocation as good, Ling said generally the money allocated is still not enough if it is meant to cover all those in need in his constituency.
In the last distribution done by the stage government, he said every wakil rakyat received an allocation of RM250,000.
“Under my constituency, there are three wakil rakyat and basically what the Federal Government gives is only one third as compared to the last distribution by the state government,” he added.
He said if each food basket is set at RM50, then they could only prepare 6,000 food baskets by using RM300,000.
“From my feedback, nearly 18,000 food baskets were distributed during the last distribution in Sibu and some wakil rakyat have extra allocation by using their own constituency allocation. Yet we still receive complaints that many did not get their share.”
Lanang MP Alice Lau said the announcement was good but they it remained to be seen when will they be able to receive the RM300,000 meant for aid package.
She said people are suffering and dying and it was timely that the federal government distribute the allocation fast to help the people from more sufferings.
In fact, since the last MCO, Lau said she had been giving out food baskets to the people even without the allocations from the federal government.
“We have been giving out food baskets continuously to alleviate the people from further sufferings. With the announcement of the RM300,000 allocation for all MPs to implement food on the table programme, we hope we can get the allocation soonest for us to continue with our programme.”