KUALA LUMPUR – With the budget for only five ministries remaining to be debated at the committee stage, opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s hope of proving his strong, formidable, and convincing numbers in Parliament is on borrowed time.
Today, the Dewan Rakyat passed allocations for three more ministries, the last of which – Communications and Multimedia Ministry (CMA) – was done through bloc voting.
A total of 107 MPs voted for, 100 voted against, while 13 were absent from the Dewan.
This is the eighth time a ministry’s budget was passed via a division vote. In total, the Perikatan Nasional (PN) administration has succeeded in passing the allocation for 22 ministries to date.
The other two ministries’ budgets that were passed today were the Youth and Sports Ministry (KBS) and the Human Resources Ministry (MoHR).
On September 24, Anwar, who is Port Dickson MP, held a press conference to claim that he had the support of the majority of parliamentarians.
Then on November 26, during voting for Budget 2021 at the policy stage, he told opposition MPs at the eleventh hour not to oppose the motion to have division voting for Budget 2021 at the policy stage. He later explained that the budget could still be rejected later at the committee stage.
He stressed that there was a slew of new goodies that were announced by Finance Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz in the budget at the policy stage. –The Vibes, December 10, 2020
