Malaysian opposition leader Anwar, assailed for backing Muhyiddin’s budget bill, goes on defensive
- Pakatan Harapan coalition leader vows to ‘fight more intensely’ next week after finer details of the bill are released
- Opposition lawmakers apologise over passage of bill, saying they will request a bloc vote on specific measures
Anwar acknowledged in a statement that even though members of the coalition had wanted to take a vote on the matter, “I decided as the Opposition leader and Pakatan Harapan chairman to request that the party whips not do so.”
Anwar’s statement came a day after Muhyiddin’s hotly debated supply bill moved past the policy stage despite the leader’s weak parliamentary support.
Many opposition lawmakers had expressed their lack of support for the supply bill and disappointment at the directive to let it pass, including members of parliament Akmal Nasir, Hassan Karim and Nurul Izzah, who is Anwar’s daughter.
“We were ready to vote down the budget until last-minute instructions to stand down came, which we adhered to as per conventions of party discipline,” the three said in a statement. “Our supporters have made it emphatically clear that it is crucial we are led by our conscience in matters of national importance. We want to honour that trust placed in us and therefore act accordingly.”
Pakatan Harapan had earlier intimated it would vote down the budget after the Perikatan Nasional government had failed to include some of its key demands in the bill. However, after the budget passed by vote by acclamation, only 13 opposition MPs stood to push for a vote by division – two short of the required quorum.
Meanwhile, Anthony Loke, parliamentary whip of the Democratic Action Party (DAP), another Pakatan Harapan component party, apologised to members and supporters for the coalition’s move.
“I apologise publicly if you feel that this was the wrong decision,” he said in a statement Thursday, saying he took full responsibility for the order to DAP lawmakers and that his party would request for a bloc vote on specific budget allocations and measures.
Many had speculated that the budget would not pass due to Muhyiddin’s razor-thin parliamentary majority, and that voting it down would serve as a show of no confidence in the leader, who was appointed prime minister in March after a political coup that saw Pakatan Harapan turfed out of power.
Anwar has maintained that Pakatan Harapan merely allowed the supply bill to enter the next stage – debate at committee level – to more closely scrutinise it. He promising to fight “more intensely” after obtaining finer details of the budget next week.
“This is only the first round,” he said on Thursday after the vote. “A more detailed debate will start at the committee stage next Monday. We have decided to call for a bloc voting if there are ministries that go against our wishes on governance and corruption,”
Since the coup, speculation that Muhyiddin’s fragile new coalition would lose its grip on power have been rife, heightened by Anwar insisting in September that he had gathered sufficient support from enough members of parliament to seize the premiership.
Observers have criticised Anwar’s budget gambit, including political scientist Wong Chin Huat, who pointed out that if Anwar and the opposition were serious about “fixing the flaws in the budget as much as changing the government, then a vote of division was absolutely necessary”.
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“If Anwar can gather a coalition to take over as prime minister, he deserves to be one. And defeating a flawed budget is a perfectly legitimate means,” Wong said. “However, Anwar’s eagerness to become the premier must not cause him to fail as the parliamentary opposition leader. His obsession with numbers must not derail the opposition from effective policy competition.”
The budget also includes several Covid-19 measures including increased spending on Health Ministry supplies such as protective gear and expanding tax relief to include immunisation expenses for when a vaccine is developed.
