Will Muhyiddin remain as PM next Thursday?

 

MP SPEAKS | Will Muhyiddin Yassin remain as Malaysia’s eighth prime minister next Thursday (Nov 26) or will he become the shortest prime minister in the nation’s history?

He will not be prime minister next Thursday if Budget 2021 is defeated in the second reading vote in Parliament, expected on Nov 25.

Yet he does not seem to be doing anything to ensure that Budget 2021 is passed although opposition members are mindful of the advice of the Yang di Pertuan Agong and the Malay rulers that in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, Malaysians must show unprecedented unity to get it passed.

Will Budget 2021 be adopted by Malaysians if there is a national referendum on it? I am quite doubtful, as the Budget is an ordinary budget in extraordinary times when it should be an extraordinary budget in extraordinary times.

What is worse, it would appear that Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz is taking advantage of both the extraordinary times of a Covid-19 epidemic and the advice of the Agong and the Malay rulers and is asking for a blank cheque from parliamentarians when he should be making Budget 2021 a historic one - an extraordinary budget crafted with the suggestions from all quarters to make it a “unity” budget in extraordinary times.

Instead, we have a Budget which seeks to slip in a revival of the infamous Special Affairs Department (Jasa) with a walloping RM85.5 million allocation.

Jasa’s ‘secret’ budget

It has now been revealed by Kluang MP Wong Shu Qi that Jasa operated a secret budget under the Najib administration to the tune of some RM80 million a year, avoiding public scrutiny and Parliament’s oversight.

I don’t think Zafrul knows much about Jasa and its secret operations, and unless there is a specific directive from the prime minister that these secret provisions should be deleted, there would be an amendment to Budget 2021.

Budget 2021 should be an extraordinary budget to unite Malaysians in extraordinary times of Covid-19 pandemic, and not an ordinary budget to secrete special allocations to avoid public scrutiny and parliamentary oversight.

It may be that Muhyiddin is being blackmailed or arm-twisted to prevent him from making Budget 2021 an extraordinary budget in extraordinary times, and if so, there is nothing “unity”, “national” or “extraordinary” about this Budget.

This will be a critical test of the character of the eighth prime minister of Malaysia!

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LIM KIT SIANG is the DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri. - Mkini

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.