PM urged to reconvene Parliament, allow Parliamentary Select Committee to function

KUCHING: Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin must immediately reconvene Parliament and allow the Parliamentary Select Committee to function so that the government can be transparent with their plans, said Bandar Kuching MP Dr Kelvin Yii.

Pointing out that one of the plans by the government was to tap into the National Trust Fund (KWAN) which was reportedly for the procurement of vaccines and related expenditures, he said, as a Sarawakian MP, he demanded absolute transparency on the plan due to the fact that a huge chunk of such contributions into that trust fund comes from Sarawak's oil and gas resources.

This is also in view of the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government's use of their Emergency powers to pass a law under the Emergency (National Trust Fund) (Amendment) Ordinance 2021 which allows the current government to use such trust fund which is generally reserved for the country's future generations without much scrutiny and oversight, he added.

"According to Section 5(c) of the National Trust Fund Act 1988, huge majority of such fund comes from contributions made by any state in Malaysia which derives any form of royalty from the exploitation of petroleum or other depleting resources, in other words Petronas.

"That means that such trust fund was created from our country's natural resources and is estimated to be worth about RM16.9 billion currently and since its inception has not been used once as it is reserved mainly for the usage and benefits of our future generations," he pointed out in a statement Thursday.

In any case, Dr Yii opines that the usage of such funds must go through approval and scrutiny in Parliament so that this money that is for the people is really being spent prudently and efficiently.