Chong hands over help from his MP allowance for church renovation
Chong (right) and Kong (second from left) with representatives of the Church of the Sacred Heart at the Seventh Mile Bazaar in Kota Sentosa.
KUCHING (June 1): Stampin MP Chong Chieng Jen awarded a grant of RM150,000 to Sacred Heart Parish at Seventh Mile Bazaar Kota Sentosa for the renovation of its church yesterday morning.
He was accompanied by his special assistant Michael Kong Feng Nian during the presentation.
Chong, who is the chairman of the Democratic Action Party (DAP) in Sarawak, said the funds came from his MP’s allowance which was made available to him through the memorandum of understanding between Pakatan Harapan (PH) and the federal government in September 2021. .
Chong said the MoU can propel Malaysia towards adopting a truly democratic system like those in Australia and the UK.
“A truly democratic system is one where there are regular changes of power to ensure that a party will not stay in power too long and where there is proper check and balance in the process of parliamentary democracy.”
He stressed that the MoU was not an endorsement of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob or his Umno party as PH signed the MoU to ensure political stability for at least a year so that the government can concentrate on the fight against the Covid of the time. -19 pandemic and economic recovery of the country.
“According to the MoU, the PH will not engage or participate in any political maneuvers by the Barisan Nasional or the Perikatan Nasional, nor will it stage a coup against the Prime Minister until July 31, 2022.
“In return, the federal government will impose a moratorium on the repayment of housing loans from banks for a period of three months from October to December 2021, and that banks will not charge interest on loans during this moratorium period. .”
Chong also said the MoU stipulated that the government should inject an additional RM45 billion to boost the country’s economy.
Under the memorandum of understanding, the federal government would allocate funds equal to the opposition with those of government MPs, implement Undi18 and introduce the anti-hopping law in parliament.
“Even with the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding, opposition MPs are free to oppose any draconian legislation in Parliament, an example of which was the opposition’s successful rejection of the extension of the Security Breaches (Special Measures) (Sosma) 2012 in Parliament on March 26 this year,” Chong said, adding that most of the conditions were met.
“We are now left with the anti-hopping law which has not yet been introduced by the government.”
Chong said the MoU has led to a form of “more conciliatory politically matured development” in the country’s democracy.
According to him, this change in political culture is only possible when the strength between the ruling parties and the opposition parties in parliament is balanced and not unbalanced.