LETTER | Since 2013, I have often heard debates in Parliament between both the government and opposition parliamentarians about whether or not Rosmah Mansor, the former prime minister’s wife, and family are allowed to use government jets for their official or unofficial visits overseas.

Fast forward to the year 2018, we have a similar situation where the husband of the new deputy prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim as well as their family of the deputy prime minister, were seen using the official government jet for an official visit based on a few photographs that went viral on social media.

As a citizen of the new Malaysia, I am questioning the double standards shown by the previous opposition parliamentarians that are now in the government.

Why are you all silent over the issue? Why are you not practising what you have tirelessly preached before?

Even if it was an official family invitation, the only ones that were supposed to be on the government jet were Deputy Prime Minister Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail and Permatang Pauh MP Nurul Izzah Anwar.

The rest of the family members should have taken a commercial flight for the visit.

In 2016, I remembered very clearly that Rafizi Ramli who was the MP for Pandan at that time stated that the law in regards to the usage of a government jet was simple, whereby any family member of a particular minister is required to pay for the cost of the journey, similar to the cost of a commercial flight. He went on to mention that even Michelle Obama, the wife of the former president of the United States did the same.

He even instructed then-prime minister Najib Abdul Razak’s stepson Riza Aziz and his son Ashman Najib Razak to pay back the travel costs every time when they used the government jet for their travels.

Will he be asking Anwar’s family to do the same? I doubt it, but I hope he does.

To the new Pakatan Harapan government, kindly practice what you preach and stand by your promises. We the people of Malaysia will not tolerate anything in relation to the old Malaysia. We are in the new era of Malaysia and everything should be done in the right manner from now on.

AARON DENISON is a citizen of the New Malaysia.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.