Former Sungai Benut MP Tawfik Ismail said the unity ministry, headed by Aaron Ago Dagang, should be given a bigger budget due to its role of bridging divides and fostering good rapport among Malaysians.

“Your portfolio, Yang Berhormat, is the most important and most needed to mend fences and build rapport, and for me, personally, deserves a budget equal to if not more than that given to Jakim as you serve a wider constituency,” he said.

Tawfik said this in his speech after receiving The National Unity Icon Leadership Award at the Sejahtera Malaysia event today, hosted by KSI Strategic Institute for Asia Pacific, Dialog Rakyat and UCSI University.

Jakim has in the past come under criticism for the size of its enormous annual budget allocations.

The government allocated RM1.9 billion to Jakim for the management and development of Islamic affairs in the 2024 budget.

In his speech, Tawfik also highlighted the significance of having a Sarawakian leader helm the unity ministry.

“We, in the peninsula, look with certain envy at the harmony and depth of empathy for each other that is uniquely Sarawakian, and whose values we in Malaya once shared, but which are now severely tested by narrow-minded and bigoted rhetoric by people who should know better,” he said.