Govt, Syed Saddiq reach agreement in principle to restore Muar allocations

The legal challenge faced by Muar MP Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman against the government's decision to cancel the constituency funding has been postponed to allow all parties to explore a better resolution. Senior counsel Ahmad Hanir Hambaly informed the three-judge panel of the Federal Court that he has received instructions from Attorney-General Dusuki Mokhtar to postpone the hearing while efforts to resolve the dispute out of court are pursued.

"All parties need time to work on a settlement mechanism," he said. The chairperson of the Sabah and Sarawak High Court, Azizah Nawawi, set 7 Dec for the parties to inform the court of developments in the settlement proposals. The panel also included Judge Nazlan Ghazali and Collin Lawrence Sequerah. Syed Saddiq's counsel, Lim Wei Jiet, said his client had agreed to the proposal.

On 10 Mar, the Federal Court ruled in favor of Syed Saddiq to appeal the High Court's decision upholding its denial of his application for permission to commence the judicial review of the constituency funding. The issues raised in the appeal include whether cancelling or suspending the constituency funding by the government can be reviewed by the courts and whether such action violates the right to equality under Article 8(1) of the Constitution.

The High Court will also decide whether the challenge can be pursued after the three-month deadline for the judicial review application expires. On 27 Oct 2025, the High Court rejected the application for permission to commence the judicial review, with a 2-1 decision by Judge Hashim Hamzah, who is now Chief Justice of Malaysia, finding the judicial review applications filed by Syed Saddiq and three other Muar voters on 23 Apr 2024 to be time-barred, having been filed outside the three-month window from 10 Dec 2023.

On 24 Dec 2024, Chief Justice Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh, who was then a High Court judge, ruled that the court lacked jurisdiction to hear the matter as the application was filed outside the time limit. Syed Saddiq and three Muar voters - Najib Abu Nawar, Bakirudin Abdullah, and Fadzly Bisri - filed the judicial review on 23 Apr 2024, challenging the allocation of RM500,000 from the RM1.7 million budget for the Muar Parliamentary constituency for community welfare, development programs, and disaster relief.

They also sought access to Syed Saddiq's myKHAS system, which manages RM2 million for the constituency's development funds, as well as the cancellation of several approved projects worth RM230,300. They also challenged respondents' failure to disburse any funding to Syed Saddiq as an MP under the 'People's Project' initiative or similar programs for 2024.

Joshua Wu and Nevyn Vinosh Venudran also represented Syed Saddiq, while Federal and Senior Counsel Nurhafizza Azizan and Ng Wee Li and Ahmad Ilham Haridz Padli represented the respondents.