KUALA LUMPUR – It is no secret that Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s inaugural budget has been facing stiff resistance from both sides of the political divide, where he has been threatened by his own Umno allies and the opposition to scuttle the nation’s Supply Bill.
Prior to its tabling in Parliament, the Pagoh MP was desperate enough to pull out all the stops and even seek the audience of Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah to request the king’s permission to declare an emergency.
His Majesty had the foresight to deny his assent to the request but had also thrown Muhyiddin a lifeline when he issued a decree asking all federal lawmakers to back Budget 2021 – provided that Muhyiddin’s administration takes into account inputs from other political parties.
However, the Budget tabled by Finance Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz did not include the demands made by Pakatan Harapan (PH) Plus – giving the opposition the political ammunition to say that, if the Budget did not include their demands, it will not have their support.
This, coupled with the fact that even the backbencher’s main debater, Pekan MP Datuk Seri Najib Razak, had also given conditional support for the Budget does not bode well for Muhyiddin.
Looking at Muhyiddin’s razor-thin majority of only 111 MPs, coupled with the fact that Datuk Seri Bung Moktar Radin (BN-Kinabatangan) is still under Covid-19 quarantine, leaving the government with only 110 active MPs, it is no surprise if the prime minister is going through sleepless nights.
The 20 BN MPs who pledged their support last night were all ministers and deputy ministers. The silence of the other MPs in Perikatan Nasional (PN) is telling and begs the question if Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, who commands the support of at least 92 MPs minus Umno and Najib who also has at least 15 Umno MPs on his side will defeat the Budget if it is not the people-centric Budget that the Yang di-Pertuan Agong had requested.
Originally, the PN administration had 112 MPs but the death of Datuk Hasbullah Osman (BN-Gerik) had left a dent in their numbers.
To top it off, Tengku Zafrul’s budget might already have lost the support of one backbencher MP – Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah (BN-Gua Musang), who has already made it public that he wishes to abstain from voting.
Under such circumstances, one cannot help but wonder then if the decision to limit each Parliamentary meeting to only 2pm under the pretext of Covid-19 standard operating procedures, was a deliberate move to delay the voting process till next week and give Muhyiddin some breathing space. The motion to extend the sitting by an hour today to 3pm will do little to speed things up.
Even though Speaker Datuk Azhar Azizan Harun had told the Lower House that the new limit came from the Health Ministry’s recommendations and was agreed upon by the respective party’s chief whips, one can see that the 11am to 2pm time frame allowing the ministers to wind up is not enough.
As part of the new normal in the Dewan Rakyat, each ministry is given only 20 minutes to reply – a far cry from pre-pandemic days when they had more time to entertain questions and debates from the floor.
Up till today, there are still 19 ministries that have not winded up their Budget speech. In fact, the government was forced to extend today’s meeting from 2pm to 3pm today to fit in as many ministries as possible.
On top of this, there is also the Covid-19 scare stemming from Datuk Jeffrey Kitingan's (GRS-Keningau) return to Parliament yesterday and the uproar triggered, even though he said he had already been cleared by the Health Ministry to attend the meeting.
Seeing that the Muhyiddin administration has been accused of utilising the Covid-19 pandemic for its political benefit, one would not be surprised if he uses this new scare as an excuse to suspend Parliament for a two-day sanitisation process.
According to Fahmi Fadzil (PH-Lembah Pantai), if voting for the Budget is delayed tomorrow, it will be the fourth time the voting process has faced a delay. Originally, the ballot was supposed to be cast on November 23, and was then postponed to November 25, with the latest set for tomorrow.
“The issue is there is much doubt on whether Muhyiddin has majority support of the House, and until the issue is dealt with definitively, people will continue to speculate and read into it.
“If the rumours turn out to be true, I can only see that the Budget vote will be shifted to next week. There is no way around facing a Budget vote, especially since his emergency move failed. I cannot foresee how the economy and stock market will respond.
“We can only rely on the speaker to ensure that there is no delay to the vote. I hope he understands and assists the House to make sure our constitutional duties can be executed as per our oath of office,” Fahmi told The Vibes.
Whether they vote tomorrow or next week, one thing is for certain – Budget 2021 will make or break Muhyiddin’s career. – The Vibes, November 25, 2020
