Many issues still debatable, PH support for upcoming budget far from guaranteed

16 Oct 2021

By Wartawan Nabalu News

KUALA LUMPUR: Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has warned that Pakatan Harapan (PH) support for the upcoming budget was far from guaranteed as many disputable issues remained on the table.

According to a report by The Straits Time, he stated that amongst the contentious issues include matters related to corruption.

While he asserted that the memorandum of understanding (MOU) between PH coalition and the government led to parliamentary reforms, he cautioned against snap polls to resolve Malaysia’s political crisis.

Malaysia was nowhere near to claiming any success in dealing with the Covid-19 health crisis as the country enters its second week of interstate travel resuming, he added.

Among Anwar's assessments of the MOU that demands fresh polls can only be called after the end of July next year contradicts the position held by several of the opposition lawmakers.

For them, it feels like PH is impeded so that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail can govern without subjecting his government to a confidence vote in Parliament.

Anwar also opined that the current government was fragile as it only had a thin majority in Parliament.

He told the media agency that there was some griping within the PH that the opposition may have conceded too much in the hastily put-together MOU and that he was generally unhappy with the progress.

Anwar apprised that the health of the people should be at the top of the list and that employment, welfare and livelihood should be the focus of the government.

On the Malacca state assembly dissolution of the Melaka state assembly, the KEADILAN president commented it was “ill-advised” for former governor Tun Ali Rustam to dissolve the state assembly.

Meanwhile, Anwar said the MOU helped push ahead of the process of implementing the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) so that an agreement could be reached before the end of 2021.

For anti-hopping law, he stated that more time was needed to iron out differences, but the dateline was set for end of March next year.

However, the slow-paced approach by the government has irked several PH officials as the failure to introduce the law in time would mean that the MOU would be invalid.