KUALA LUMPUR: Deputy Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Siti Zailah Mohd Yusoff was once again on the receiving end of opposition MPs today when the ministry failed to keep its promise on the RM1,000 financial assistance for eligible disabled.
The issue was raised by Teo Nie Ching (PH-Kulai) in the Dewan Rakyat where she questioned the deputy minister’s capabilities since Siti Zailah still remained in the same portfolio despite there being two changes of government.
She then reminded Siti Zailah that former prime Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin had made a promise last Dec 3 in conjunction with International Day of Persons with Disabilities to increase the financial assistance under the Welfare Department (JKM) from between RM200 and RM300 to RM1,000 to eligible disabled persons which was to be implemented immediately.
“The Facebook post (of this announcement) by the former prime minister is still there and when he made the announcement you (Siti Zailah) were still in the same ministry. What was the effort made by the minister to ensure that this proposal of RM1,000 monthly will be implemented?” she asked.
“So was it an empty promise by the former prime minister then? Or should we ask the Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka to amend the definition of ‘immediately’ to more than a year?” she lambasted.
Siti Zailah then replied that the ministry had submitted that proposal to the Finance Ministry and is awaiting its approval.
“If we increase the amount to RM1,000 , it will involve a huge cost to the government. So we need the Finance Ministry’s approval for this,“ she replied to Teo’s supplementary question.
Teo then proceeded by asking Siti Zailah if the promise made by the former prime minister was unrealistic and just an empty promise.
“What does immediately mean then? Why do you need to promise to implement it immediately?” she questioned.
Dewan Rakyat deputy speaker Datuk Mohd Rashid Hasnon put a stop to the argument and told Teo to sit down as the question had been answered accordingly and then asked Datuk Che Abdullah Mat Nawi (PAS-Tumpat) to pose his supplementary question to the deputy minister.
Before posing his question, Che Abdullah backed Siti Zailah by saying that Teo did not seem to understand what the deputy minister was saying.
