Budget 2023 just ‘sweets’ if Parliament dissolved first: Muhyiddin

KUALA LUMPUR – Perikatan Nasional (PN) chairman Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin has called the recently-tabled 2023 federal budget a mere “sweetener” aimed at wooing votes given strong speculation that Parliament will be dissolved today.

He questioned the need for MPs to have sat through its tabling last Friday if the whole exercise would ultimately become redundant.

“If Parliament is dissolved tomorrow and there is no more Dewan Rakyat sitting, what becomes of the budget? It is then just a ‘halwa’ (sweetener) for the ears.

“But that’s fine. If you choose PN, we will present a better budget,” he said in a speech to the PN election machinery during a coalition event in Kuala Kangsar, Perak last night.

Muhyiddin’s remarks followed rumours last night that Parliament could be dissolved today following a meeting yesterday afternoon between Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri and  Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah.

Political sources have told various media that the meeting was for the prime minister to seek his majesty’s consent to dissolve Parliament.

The presence of Dewan Rakyat speaker Tan Sri Azhar Azizan Harun at the airport last night to send off the king and Raja Permaisuri Agong Tunku Hajah Azizah Aminah Maimunah Iskandariah to London for a week-long official visit could also be the clearest indication yet that the announcement of Parliament’s dissolution of could be made as early as today.

Ismail Sabri had also met the king on Thursday afternoon, prior to the cabinet meeting the following morning and the budget tabling that afternoon. Istana Negara on Thursday night said it was a regular, pre-cabinet weekly audience.

The budget tabled last Friday was a RM372.3 billion federal spending plan for next year, the biggest in Malaysia’s history and RM40.2 billion more than last year’s allocation of RM332.1 billion.

Ismail Sabri, who is an Umno vice-president, has been facing months of pressure from party chief Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi to dissolve Parliament and hold a snap election this year. – The Vibes, October 10, 2022