Malaysia: Budget 2021 passes policy stage in Dewan Rakyat

• PERIKATAN Nasional scored a major victory on 26 Nov 20 when it managed to pass Budget 2021 in the Dewan Rakyat after making several adjustments.
• After 13 days of debate, the lower house passed 2021’s budget at the policy stage (second reading) by voice vote at 3.26pm.
• Although Mahfuz Omar (Pokok Sena-PH) called for division voting, he could not muster the minimum 15 MPs to effect an individual count of those supporting or opposing the budget.
• During the winding-up by Finance Minister Senator Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz, the government agreed to extend the loan moratorium to all B40 income earners and small businesses.
• It agreed to allow 8 million EPF contributors to withdraw up to MYR10,000 from their account 1 in one lump sum instead of MYR6,000 across 12 months.
• The government also conceded to a demand to reduce the MYR85.5mn allocated to its propaganda unit, minutes before Budget 2021 was put to the vote.
• Before speaker Azhar Azizan Harun called for a vote, Khalid Samad (Shah Alam-PH) protested to Tengku Zafrul that there was hardly any engagement with the opposition.
• Amanah MPs stood up to push for a bloc vote on the budget because they did not receive opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim’s message to allow it to pass at the policy stage, according to Sepang MP Mohamed Hanipa Maidin.
• In a Facebook post, Hanipa gave his side of the story on what transpired in Parliament, when the majority of opposition MPs had opted against an individual vote for the passage of the budget.
• Hanipa said Amanah president Mohamad Sabu and vice-president Mujahid Yusof did not stand out of respect for Anwar’s instructions and in the spirit of solidarity for Pakatan Harapan (PH).
• Despite the budget being passed at the policy stage, Hanipa said, the government was not “out of the woods yet” as there were still the debates at the committee stage, which will take place from Monday.

External Link : https://www.themalaysianinsight.com/s/286898

External Link : https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2020/11/27/anwars-message-did-not-reach-us-says-amanah-mp/