The BN Backbenchers Club's deputy chairman Bung Mokhtar Radin said that all BN MPs receive an additional RM500,000 in funds on top of the RM1 million allocation. The money is meant to be channeled to each constituency for development purposes.

Bung Mokhtar also added that the additional allocation normally depends on the economy. If the economy is good, then there will be more allocations.

Well, seriously I had no idea that the economic situation of the country could be revived so quickly and so suddenly!  

As reported, it is understood that the allocations given out to BN MPs each year come from the prime minister himself, under a development fund monitored by a unit called the Implementation Coordination Unit (ICU).  

The Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department office, Nazri Aziz when asked about the sudden increase of allocations , confirmed that the BN MPs are given additional funds of RM500,000 because the government has extra money. The government’s business is not to keep the money but to spend the money, he said. 

This again fuelled the speculation that there will be an early snap election. The opposition MPs are predicting a snap election soon judging by the way the Najib administration dishes out money to the BN MPs.  

Given that there are a total of 222 parliamentary constituencies, the additional allocation will amount to an extra outlay of RM111 million.

Just not long ago, I believe everyone must recall that the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Idris Jala said that Malaysia risks becoming the next Greece because the country will go bankrupt a year before our Vision 2020 if the government does not cut the subsidies. He said that the country’s debt would rise to 100 percent of GDP by 2019 from the current 54 percent if subsidies are not being cut.

However the Umno MPs, including our former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, dismissed the bankruptcy warning by Idris Jala and deemed the figures provided exaggerated. The Treasury Department also disputed the calculation of Idris Jala. The Treasury claimed that the subsidy bill was only RM18.6 billion and not RM74 billion as indicated by Idris Jala.

Also we have not forgotten the big fuss over the relocation of the Parliament to Putrajaya recently. Again, it was due to the so-called budget shortage. Earlier on it was reported that the cabinet had already decided on a new building for Parliament, which would cost about RM800 million – taking into consideration aspects of comfort, needs, facilities and the increased number of seats.

Then a week later, Nazri said that Parliament might move to Putrajaya International Convention Centre while renovation works were carried out on the Parliament building.

On 30 June, Nazri further on apologised to the Dewan Rakyat for misinformation pertaining to the proposed relocation of Parliament, which in fact is a decision that has not been made. He said he was misled by the officers and considered it as merely an internal issue.

We often heard conflicting answers coming from the government. Needless to say, both events have already shaken the confidence and trust of the people on the government.

So are we getting rich now? I am rather confused, how about you?