Sungai Siput MP Dr Jeyakumar Devaraj took his quest for annual government allocations for constituencies - presently denied opposition legislators - a step further by lodging a police report today on the matter in Ipoh.

penang psm dinner 181210 jeyakumar devaraj The report follows hard upon the leave application Jeyakumar filed in the Kuala Lumpur High Court last month for a judicial review of the government’s decision to reject the MP’s request for aid to welfare projects in Sungai Siput.

Last week the High Court said it would rule on the leave application on Feb 8.

The case is being closely watched for it raises a number of constitutional questions, chief among them equal protection of citizens under the law.

Jeyakumar holds that the annual allocations, given to BN MPs but withheld from oppositionists, are a constitutional right of all elected legislators and that present methods of their disbursement in opposition wards cannot withstand public scrutiny.

The latter point was the subject of the MP’s report lodged at the main police station in Ipoh today.

In a letter to a query raised by Jeyakumar, dated Oct 12, 2010 and signed by Zainal Abidin Omar, a Perak state development officer, the MP was informed that as of July 2010, a total sum of RM1.72 million was disbursed to 56 projects in Sungai Siput.

Among these were three projects that Jeyakumar had petitioned the state development office for aid.

The three were an Islamic orphanage and two schools, Methodist Secondary and Men Sing Chung.

Figures don’t add up

Jeyakumar checked with the three supposed recipients and discovered that Anak Yatim Nurul Ihsan did not receive a single cent in aid while RM3,500 was given to Methodist Secondary and RM2,000 to Men Sing Chung School.

“The sums don’t add up,” said Jeyakumar, the only socialist MP elected to Parliament since the 1978 general election.        

“Besides sums not adding up, the whole matter of the distribution of the RM1.72 million is opaque,” he commented.        

“The projects that were aided are referred to in the letter as ‘tajuk’, which is vague. This opacity needs to be cleared up because this allocation comes from the annual Budget’s allocation of funds to the PM’s Department,” he expatiated.

“Opposition MPs are elected by the people and are entitled to directly disburse, under public scrutiny of course, the annual allocation for their wards, just as government MPs are allowed that prerogative,” he added.

“To channel funds meant for opposition wards through unelected officers in state development offices is a process that cannot withstand public scrutiny and accountability,” he asserted.

Jeyakumar’s police report places the issues in sharper relief in advance of legal adjudication.