Analysts believe that the Budget 2023 bill scheduled to be tabled in the Dewan Rakyat this Friday would serve as a BN manifesto at best if Parliament is dissolved before the bill gets passed by Dewan Negara.
There are however talks that the prime minister may dissolve Parliament even before Budget 2023 is tabled by seeking an audience with the Agong either today or tomorrow.
According to experts, the Budget bill would not become law if it is tabled and passed by Dewan Rakyat alone, and thus would have to be retabled by the new government in the next Parliament.
"Legitimately, the Supply Bill 2023 will only take effect upon passing and approval of the bill, where it has to go through the constitutional process of being debated at both houses (Dewan Rakyat and Dewan Negara) prior to being passed as legislation," lawyer Salim Bashir Baskaran told Malaysiakini.
He said if the 15th General Election (GE15) is called prior to the approval, it will have no effect until a new government is formed and gets retabled for approval.
The new government also has the choice of whether to retable the same bill or propose a new version.
"(Because) it is a ‘supply bill’, it will not lapse by reason of prorogation or dissolution of the Parliament, but for the proposed Budget to be implemented, it has to take form as a piece of legislation.
"The new government has the choice as to wanting to table the earlier bill by the old government for second reading, or retable a new Budget bill," said Salim.
According to the legal expert, this has happened before in 1999, when the new government "rehearsed" the tabling of the Budget for its second reading in the Dewan Rakyat because the Parliament was dissolved immediately after it was tabled by the previous government.
Earlier today, Padang Rengas MP Nazri Aziz told the Dewan Rakyat that any matters that are debated or passed by the Dewan Rakyat during this current session would not go to waste as this process can continue after the new government is formed.
Nazri, who is from BN, was answering a question posed by Pokok Sena MP Mahfuz Omar, who asked whether Nazri agreed that their time debating the Budget bill would be wasted if Parliament is dissolved before it passes through the Senate and is gazetted.
Similarly, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Parliament and Law) Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar also told reporters at the Parliament yesterday that a bill that has been tabled in the Dewan Rakyat for its first reading would not lapse and can be continued in the next Parliament session if the new administration chooses to do so.
"But there is also nothing stopping the new administration from amending or cancelling the bill," he said.
Red herring
Meanwhile, political analyst Awang Azman Awang Pawi believes that the government would take the Budget tabling as an opportunity to promise goodies and increase financial assistance to the people.
He said the Budget would be akin to a manifesto for the BN governing coalition so that voters would choose them to continue helming the country.
"This will be made as a GE15 Budget, where we would see an increase in allocations to show the government being inclusive and focusing on target groups such as the B40, while at the same time not leaving behind the middle-income groups...
"This is so that they can gain voters' confidence and thus get more votes to win the general election," said Awang, who is a research fellow at Universiti Malaya Centre for Democracy and Elections (Umcedel).
On the other hand, James Chin, a professor of Asian studies at the University of Tasmania, is of the view that all the talks about dissolving the Parliament after the tabling of the Budget as a mere "red herring".
He told Malaysiakini that the BN-led government has no reason to table the Budget for next year before going into GE15.
"This is red herring, nonsense. The reason is that the promises he (prime minister) is going to make, he doesn't have to put in the Budget. It can be part of the (BN) manifesto.
"They do not need to pass the Budget before they go into election. Because the same items can be put inside their manifesto.
"To me, it's the same thing, you really don't need the Budget. So, I don't understand why the opposition is obsessed with the Budget." - Mkini
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