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KUALA LUMPUR – After weeks of uncertainty, Malaysia’s Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s first federal budget, the largest in the country’s history, overcame a final hurdle to be ratified by Parliament on Tuesday (December 15), after survive a parliamentary vote.
The Tan Sri Muhyiddin Perikatan Nasional government was backed by 111 MPs, compared with 108 MPs who voted against it, after the opposition triggered a bloc voting procedure.
The RM322.5 billion (S $ 105 billion) budget will now go to the Upper House, the Senate, for ratification, before it goes into effect.
However, Upper House approvals are generally a formality in the Malaysian legislature.
Muhyiddin’s victory comes after renewed doubts about his majority in the week before the final budget vote.
Earlier this week, it was once again speculated that opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim had managed to secure the backing of several deputies from the Umno government to undo the majority of Muhyiddin. But this was later denied by Datuk Seri Anwar’s faction, Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR).
Anwar, the chairman of PKR, has been demanding a parliamentary majority for the past three months and even had an audience with the King of Malaysia, Sultan Abdullah Ahmad Shah, in October to convince the ruler of his majority claim.
On Monday, Muhyiddin’s predecessor, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, also indicated a possible budget failure by announcing that he was partnering with a senior government MP, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, to offer government formation should it fail. budget.
Tan Sri Tengku Razaleigh, the longest-serving MP in Umno – the largest component of the Muhyiddin government – had called the NP administration “illegitimate” and said he would not support the budget.
But Tengku Razaleigh’s move did not appear to influence the voting pattern of other Umno lawmakers, showing that Prime Minister Muhyiddin still retained the support of at least 111 MPs in the 220-member chamber, following the deaths of two lawmakers. at the beginning of this year. .
Opponent Pakatan Harapan decided not to ask for a block vote during the budget vote on the political stage last month. But on Tuesday they decided to challenge the budget twice in quick succession by voting by division.
PH called the budget a document that did not achieve its own goals and even urged government lawmakers to reject it.
But on both occasions, the result was the same, with the government obtaining 111 votes against 108 for the opposition. Only one deputy, Tengku Razaleigh, was absent.
The voting pattern also showed that all the deputies who were present in the lower house had voted along party lines.
Dr. Mahathir on Monday urged lawmakers to vote according to their conscience and not party lines. “MPs should think about the country first, not themselves,” Dr. Mahathir had said at a joint press conference with Tengku Razaleigh.
The budget victory would likely solidify Muhyiddin’s control as the country’s chief executive for the foreseeable future.
Despite constant questions about his majority since he took office as prime minister in March, the Muhyiddin government has managed to pass a coronavirus relief bill and now the federal budget in Parliament.
This is so despite the fact that the majority of Muhyiddin was never debated or voted on in Parliament.
Numerous motions of confidence and censure have been filed against Mr. Muhyiddin, but none of them have seen the light of day in Parliament, where government bills are prioritized.
This meant that the bills in Parliament acted as a barometer of Prime Minister Muhyiddin’s parliamentary support.
The budget victory comes just over a week after tensions between Muhyiddin’s Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) and Umno saw the Perak state government fall.
The Perak government was led by Bersatu Vice President Ahmad Faizal Azumu, who was overthrown last week after a majority of Umno assembly members voted against him. However, PN managed to re-form the Perak state government, but this time with a prime minister from Umno.
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