Shahbudin: MPs should oppose ‘sugar-coated’ Budget 2016
(FMT) – They can either raise their hands and support it when it comes to the voting on the document or do the disappearing act.
A political analyst reckons that MPs have only two choices on Budget 2016 after it’s announced on Friday afternoon by Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak as Finance Minister. They can either raise their hands and support it when it comes to the voting on the document or do the disappearing act.
The choice is theirs, said Shahbudin Husin the analyst in his latest blog posting. He added that the people know, amidst various burdens imposed on them and their suffering at a time when the economy was heading south, the ringgit was down, and the stock market in the doldrums, that one of the main causes was Najib as Prime Minister and Finance Minister.
He was taking his cue from a statement by Gua Musang MP Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah who felt that the MPs on the government side would not, in the normal course of circumstances, oppose the Budget. “However, if the MPs feel that there are substantive issues to oppose the Prime Minister, they have the right to do so (not support the Budget),” the analyst quoted Razaleigh as saying.
It also becomes the duty of MPs, added the analyst, to oppose on behalf of the people if the Budget was merely “sugar-coated”.
“This year, we will focus our efforts on strengthening the resilience of the economy, manage the impact of the world economy and external events on the local economy and protect the wellbeing of the people,” Shahbudin quoted Najib as saying in the social media.
“The people will not believe him on the Budget just as they don’t believe him on the RM2.6 billion in his personal accounts being a political donation. They will see the Budget as nothing more than empty promises, coming up with all sorts of things, to try and revive and restore his image. None will believe these empty promises.”
