In a Facebook post, Mohd Puad Zarkashi said people were at a loss as to how deputy federal territories minister Edmund Santhara was allowed to go on leave.

Yesterday, Santhara said Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin approved his leave to travel to New Zealand to be with his family and wife who is ill.

“YB Santhara gave the reason that he applied for leave and permission to travel to New Zealand to be a responsible father,” said Puad.

“Are regular folk not allowed to cross district and state borders to visit their families because they are regarded as irresponsible parents? They are not asking to travel overseas,” he said.

Puad said he felt sorry for frontliners who have not had their leave approved.

He said elected representatives should frequently visit their constituencies, more so during the pandemic and the flood season, which also affected Santhara’s Segamat constituency.

“Isn’t a two-week break enough? During the Barisan Nasional era, the leave for ministers and deputy ministers would be frozen during the flood season.”

He said former prime minister Najib Razak was not exempted as he had to cancel his holiday when Kelantan was hit by major flooding in 2014.

“Is the deputy FT minister’s post no longer important? The (case of) double standards in this country is getting more apparent.”