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KUALA LUMPUR: After failing to defeat Budget 2021 on Tuesday (December 15), DAP Secretary General Lim Guan Eng (Photo) and Amanah President Mohamad Sabu have called for a “political restart” to unite the opposition before the next general election.
“Now there must be a political reboot to focus on building a more united opposition group that can fight as one in the next general election.
“Pakatan leaders must put aside the baggage of the past so that Pakatan can expand into Pakatan Plus with a formidable force of 108 MPs.
“With 108 Pakatan Plus MP as a strong group, anything is possible,” the duo said in a joint statement issued on Facebook on Thursday (December 17).
The duo also viewed the 2021 Budget block vote on Tuesday as a disappointing day for Pakatan leaders and supporters, who expected the 2021 Budget to be defeated at third reading in Parliament.
At the same time, Lim and Mohamad said that the block vote on the third reading of the 2021 Budget on Tuesday had clearly shown that 108 MPs opposing Perikatan Nasional is the same number that stood firm with Pakatan after the “Sheraton Movement.” in March.
“Not a single deputy in the government voted with Pakatan, including those who supposedly support Anwar.
“Clearly, these government deputies are adept at playing political games to get maximum influence from the Perikatan government,” they said.
“Pakatan should not be wasting time with opportunistic government supporters who exploit the coalition for their own private gain and obtain more lucrative deals from the government,” they added.
Lim and Mohamad considered the approval of the 2021 Budget as a representation of a vote of confidence towards the Perikatan government.
They noted that Pakatan has declared his support for Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim as his prime ministerial candidate, and that he can get the support of government deputies if they are not “kleptocratic deputies.”
They said that time and resources should be devoted to the “friends and allies” of the Opposition who can seek common cause for the rakyat.
“Instead of 92 MPs allied to Pakatan, Pakatan should broaden our horizon to focus on the 108 MPs from the opposition, which is Pakatan Plus.”
They also criticized the 2021 Budget for not being inclusive because many sectors such as education, welfare, vaccination, aid to SMEs are left out.
They accused the government of misusing its funds for allocations to the Department of Special Affairs (Jasa), now renamed the Department of Community Communications (J-Kom), and the appointment of parliamentarians to lead the GLCs.
They also criticized Budget 2021’s failure to increase welfare payments to RM1,000 per month for the unemployed, the failure to address an educational crisis involving students, and the drastic funding cuts for religious, Chinese and Tamil schools.
“The budget was unrealistic with overly optimistic projections for growth and revenue collection. In many respects, it was a regular Budget in extraordinary times.
“The shortcomings of the 2021 budget were magnified by Fitch’s downgrade of Malaysia’s sovereign credit ratings, the first downgrade by a major ASEAN nation,” they added.
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