Najib showing contempt by announcing unapproved Budget

DAP insists a two-day special sitting on the Revised Budget 2015 be held instead of the PM unilaterally announcing its restructure.

KUALA LUMPUR: The DAP has proposed a two-day special Parliament meeting on January 26 and 27 on the revised 2015 Budget instead of Prime Minister Najib Razak unilaterally announcing restructuring the 2015 Budget.

“Najib seems bent on announcing his restructured 2015 Budget on Tuesday,” said DAP Elder Statesman Lim Kit Siang in a statement. “This will mean that the revised 2015 Budget would not only be without parliamentary sanction or approval, but also without Cabinet approval or sanction.”

This is because the Cabinet would only meet the day after i.e. on Wednesday 21 January.”

Lim, who is also DAP Parliamentary Leader and Gelang Patah MP, felt that Najib’s approach on the revised Budget was improper. “He’s revising the 2015 Budget unilaterally after the Dewan Rakyat had approved the original budget on November 25 after more than a month of debate, both on general policy as well as during the detailed committee stage, by MPs from both the Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat in the Dewan Rakyat.”

“This could only mean that what the MPs from both BN and PR had said on the 2015 Budget, both during the policy and committee stage debate, were an utter waste of time, resources and effort as far as the Finance Minister was concerned!”

Now Najib proposes to announce his revised 2015 budget tomorrow, when clearly it has not been cleared or approved by the Cabinet, he fumed.

“What all this means is that the Prime Minister had developed a most deplorable and regrettable disregard and even contempt not only for the views of BN MPs, but also BN Ministers as well!”

Just as the Federal Government had relied on a series of pre-budget dialogues before the formulation of each year’s budget, reminded Lim, there should also be a series of pre-Budget Revision dialogues to hear the views of the public as to how the government should react to the latest economic crisis.

Who is Najib relying on to review and restructure the 2015 Budget? His highly-paid army of international consultants and advisers who have already landed Malaysia in much grief because of inappropriate and even ill-advised policies?

For over three months, warned Lim, Najib had simply ignored calls, including from DAP, to revise the 2015 Budget because of fast-changing international economic developments, especially the sharp fall in the prices of crude oil as well as other commodities.