This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly on November 30, 2020 - December 6, 2020

BUDGET 2021 may have been passed at the policy level during the second reading in parliament last week, but the supply bill has yet to be debated and voted on at the committee level. Moreover, it has to go through a third reading, according to member of parliament for Bangi and opposition lawmaker Ong Kian Ming.

Opposition lawmakers have described their action — or lack thereof — at the second reading as a “tactical move”, given the various amendments to the budget. They did not oppose the budget at that point as they preferred to wait for the committee phase, when items in the budget can be scrutinised in greater detail and debated on before another vote is taken.

“It is technically wrong to say that Budget 2021 has been passed or partially passed. It has not been passed yet,” Ong tells The Edge following reports that the supply bill for 2021 was passed after the second reading.

“Budget 2021 may have passed the policy level, but it has not been passed yet as there is still debate and voting at the committee (jawatankuasa) stage and also the final vote at the third reading after the committee stage.”

During the committee debate, each line item in the budget of each ministry is debated on. “Unlike the policy stage, our debate has to focus on specific line items rather than on larger policy issues,” he explains, adding that “there can be amendments” at this stage.

“MOF is coming up on Monday and we expect there to be some amendments based on what the Finance Minister announced yesterday. We can also vote on the amendments,” says Ong.

“The committee debate will involve the entire house ...  which means all MPs. For all votes that do not involve a constitutional amendment, a simple majority in the house is required to pass any bill.”

The Supply Bill 2021 was approved through a voice vote last Thursday (Nov 26) during the second reading when only 13 MPs stood up to seek a bloc vote — two short of the required minimum of 15. The lack of numbers came as a surprise as opposition lawmakers had indicated they were likely to oppose the budget unless certain conditions were met.

The 13 MPs who stood up to seek a bloc vote were Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad (Langkawi), Datuk Seri Mukhriz Mahathir (Jerlun), Datuk Amiruddin Hamzah (Kubang Pasu), Datuk Shahruddin Md Salleh (Sri Gading), Khalid Samad (Shah Alam), Datuk Mahfuz Omar (Pokok Sena), Hatta Ramli (Lumut), Datuk Hasanuddin Mohd Yunus (Hulu Langat), Datuk Dzulkefly Ahmad (Kuala Selangor), Hanipa Maidin (Sepang), Baru Bian (Selangau), Mordi Bimol (Mas Gading) and Hassan Karim (Pasir Gudang).

Opposition leader and PKR president Anwar Ibrahim said the opposition would push for bloc voting during the committee stage.

At a press conference last Thursday, he said that while the Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition remains opposed to the budget, he did not want to appear to be rejecting the budget at this point, especially as Finance Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz had announced some amendments to the bill during his wind-up speech. Consequently, they “did not want to go hard and oppose it at this stage”.

“He [Zafrul] announced grants and allowances for frontliners, farmers, fishermen and even the unemployed. If we reject it outrightly, it will affect the salaries of government servants and the frontliners. So, we decided to let it go this time, but we will fight it when detailed explanations are given next week,” said Anwar.

MP for Subang Wong Chen describes the move by the opposition as a “tactical” one. “We received a message from Anwar Ibrahim and the whips not to go for divisional voting. We don’t know what was going on [at the time] but we assumed, and rightly so, it was a tactical move on the part of the PH leadership,” he said in a Facebook post, explaining that opposition MPs were only briefed after the vote.

“... but primarily it was a tactical move to allow this policy stage debate to come through so that the committee stage which starts on Monday, we can go through every single line and proposal that he made and every single ministry we can question and vote on. If we don’t pass this [Nov] 26th, there will be a second chance on December 17. So now all eyes are on the committee stage to see what was the reality of the proposals by Tengku Zafrul,” Wong said, adding that the new proposals were “almost like a completely new budget”.

“And the increments could be in the hundreds of millions, we are not sure. So, until he tables it in a white paper document at the committee stage, we wouldn’t know the details. Having said that, we decided to allow him to table these things and all this will lead up to December 17 to the third reading and final vote.”

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