There is no reason why parliamentarians cannot disclose the allocation for their respective constituencies on the Internet, said Transparency International (TI) Malaysia president Ramon Navaratnam.

"There is no excuse for hiding information from constituents. If you deny people information, people would wonder where the money is going to," said the head of the anti-corruption body when contacted today

"The rakyat can legitimately ask where the money has gone. Has it gone back to the rakyat or into somebody else's pockets?"

Ramon was responding to excuses given by some MPs who refused to follow MCA vice-president Ong Tee Keat's move to disclose information on the RM2 million allocation for his Selangor's Pandan constituency on his personal website .

Several MPs who spoke to malaysiakini cited lack of resources, poor Internet penetration and the unnecessary need to disclose such information as among the reasons for not doing so.

In such cases, Ramon said MPs can use newspapers and other means to announce as to how they were spending the money.

"I'm sure the press would be more than happy to publish (the information). They can also put up a sign on their branches or distribute leaflets, all of which are inexpensive measures," he added.

BN MPs receive RM2 million for their respective constituencies. The ruling party controls 198 out of the 219 parliamentary seats and the total allocation amounts to RM396 million.

State assemblypersons also receive a similar budget but the amount varies from state to state. However, constituencies held by the opposition do not get the annual allocation.

Unfair practice

Commenting on this, Ramon said it is unfair for the funds to be only allocated to government MPs.

"It's unfortunate that public finds are channelled through the government. Taxpayers expect their funds distributed regardless of any political leaning.

"I wish his (Ong's) example showing such transparency, integrity and accountability is shared by all MPs and that they too would reveal how the money is spent," he added.

The MCA vice-president's move had ignited a heated debate and even drew flak from his own party.

On Jan 23, the MCA central committee decided that its elected representatives - for both state and parliament - should not reveal their constituency allocations on the internet.

The party leaders are concerned that such revelations could be "sensitive", especially in allocations for religious and education purposes.

Apart from Ong, MCA Subang Jaya state assemblyperson Lee Hwa Beng has also been revealing the information on his personal website for several years.

Despite the controversy, Ong maintained that he did the right thing and has not removed the details from his website.

Ramon supported Ong on this and urged other BN representatives to follow suit.

"I strongly commend him for being absolutely transparent for publishing what he's given out. I hope the government quotes his example to be followed by others in the interest of transparency," he said.

Divulge all information

He also reminded MPs that it is in their interest to assure voters have confidence in them.

"If voters have doubts, they won't give the same support to the same party come election time. So it's in the interest of the MPs to divulge all information or suffer lack of confidence on the part of the constituents," he said.

According to Ong's website, he made a total of 17 allocations (until September 2006) of between RM5,000 and RM180,000 for mostly road repairs in his Pandan constituency.

Meanwhile, Lee - who as a Selangor assemblyperson has a yearly budget of RM250,000 - made a total of 118 allocations last year of between RM500 and RM2,500 to schools, religious bodies, residents associations, among others.