DAP lawmaker Lim Lip Eng argued that monies should be slashed from the Prime Minister's Department's (PMD) RM20.3 billion budget to pay for school infrastructure, instead of having Parents and Teachers' Associations (PTA) raise funds for it, as proposed by a federal minister recently.

"The government should have slashed off some of the RM20.3 billion budget from the Prime Minister's Department to pay for school infrastructure instead of asking parents to pay for it," said the Segambut MP in a statement today.

He was responding to the idea mooted by Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government Minister Noh Omar (photo), who said that independently raised funds by PTAs would expedite the funding for school infrastructure, while waiting for federal funds.

Lim added that the rakyat does not need a minister whose first thoughts once he got into office is only of milking the people who are already burdened by financial pressures from the rising cost of living.

He said it boggles the mind that the government seemed more keen on spending billions of ringgit to send an astronaut to eat roti canai in space and build ever higher skyscrapers in the midst of the current commercial property glut, rather than invest in school infrastructure for our young.

Lim added that Noh seemed more concerned about asking the people to pay for school infrastructure themselves, but says nothing about worrying allegations of billions being supposedly stolen from a government-owned company and used to pay for artwork and gambling debts.

He pointed to various cuts in this year's budget affecting the education sector which has hampered government-funded schools and institutions of learning, while the budget for the PMD rose 7.6 percent from RM19 billion in 2015 t0 RM20.3 billion in 2016.

He also lamented that public funds are also being used to pay for the salaries of more ministers whose only contribution seem to be to their propensity to spew hot air.

The problem of shoddy school infrastructure is a recurring issue in Malaysia, with many cases mentioned in the annual auditor-general's report and ample evidence of such, especially in rural schools.

This is despite millions of ringgit being allocated to the education department each year and various promises by the federal government to resolve the issue.