N Sembilan royal imbroglio stalls BN-PN bid to reclaim Harapan allocations?

When BN and Perikatan Nasional came to power in Negeri Sembilan in August, one of their first moves was to instruct 17 current and former Pakatan Harapan assemblypersons and two constituency coordinators to return their advance allocations for July to September.

However, as the one-month deadline to repay the money expired last weekend, Malaysiakini learned that there has been no progress on the move to reclaim the funds.

Instead, Harapan lawmakers are still waiting for the state government to respond to their appeal against the directive.

According to Chuah assemblyperson Yew Boon Lye, they had filed the appeal shortly after receiving a letter from newly appointed Menteri Besar, Ismail Lasim.

"But so far, we haven’t received any response. Perhaps because they are still busy.

"Besides, this was a decision made by the state exco. Now they don’t even have an exco. So, for now, we are waiting," he quipped.

Yew (above), who is from PKR, was referring to the ongoing royal crisis in Negeri Sembilan, which has spilled into the state exco and affected the state administration.

READ MORE: KINIGUIDE | Negeri Sembilan royal rumble: What's going on?

The crisis escalated on Sept 20 when state ruler Tuanku Muhriz Tuanku Munawir revoked the appointments of all 10 state excos except Ismail. The legality of the move has since been disputed.

On Sept 24, the state government gazetted the ruler's decision to remove the excos.

Malaysiakini has reached out to Ismail's office for comment.

The crisis stemmed from the exco’s decision to recognise a proclamation by the state's rebel chieftain faction seeking to replace Tuanku Muhriz with Tunku Nadzaruddin Tuanku Ja’afar as Yang di-Pertuan Besar.

MB wants repayment

On Aug 26, Ismail (below) instructed 17 current and former Harapan assemblypersons and two constituency coordinators to return their advance allocations for July to September.

According to a Bernama report, the menteri besar said the repayments were required as the recipients no longer held official functions following the dissolution of the state legislative assembly on June 5.

The allocations, comprising funds for service centres and public welfare, had been channelled to the state lawmakers as well as the Paroi and Labu constituency coordinators.

Ismail ordered each assemblyperson to return RM174,000, while each coordinator was required to repay RM150,000, within a month.

The following day, a group of Harapan assemblypersons led by Nilai representative J Arul Kumar held a press conference, saying it would be impossible for them to return funds already channelled to the rakyat.

They questioned whether the state government expected them to ask recipients to return the money they had received.

According to Arul (above), those who had not used up their advance constituency allocations by June 30 had already returned the unspent sum to the state coffers as required.

The representatives maintained that the allocations had been approved by the state exco on June 3, before the state assembly was dissolved, and that the money was subsequently distributed to the public through NGOs, associations and individuals.

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