Pic from Kuala Lumpur Post
An opposition lawmaker has taken issue to the being left out of the Budget 2015 revision, saying that opposition MPs were completely ignored.
DAP Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua said the fact that the Parliament passed the Government budget and expenditure by law via a Supply Bill matters little to the Prime Minister, who has decided that he can change the will of the Parliament as he pleases.
Pua, who is also a member of the Public Accounts Committee, criticised Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak for announcing budget cuts in a hall of invited guests comprising diplomats, the business community, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and MP’s from BN.
The Pakatan Rakyat MPs, Pua said, were “completely ignored” when the Prime Minister decided to unilaterally decide on federal money without being answerable to Parliament.
“This decision by the Prime Minister leaves the MPs with absolutely no avenue to debate and decide on the changes made by the Prime Minister on the Budget which the Parliament has earlier approved.”
“It also only proved the BN government’s utter contempt and disdain for the Parliamentary institution whose sole role to them is to rubber stamp the decisions of the dictatorial executive,” Pua added.
The government’s decision to revise the budget came following repeated calls by Pakatan Rakyat, economists and financial analysts based on the drastic changes in the global economic environment resulting from the fall in crude oil prices.
While Pua said that Najib was “spot on” in emphasising and prioritising an orderly financial market and a need to stabilise the ringgit, he also lambasted the latter for placing the blame on events that were beyond the government’s control.
“The ringgit, which has depreciated more than 12% to RM3.59 to US$1 from RM3.20, was the worst hit of Southeast Asian currencies over the past six months,” Pua said.
He pointed at the Prime Minister’s failure to highlight the Federal Government’s rising debt amounting to RM 569 billion was held by foreigners. He said that this was due to the persistent selling of foreign holdings of government and private sector debt leading to the sharp decline of Malaysia’s currency in the past 60 days.
“As of 30 June 2014, foreigners held 30.3% of the ringgit and US Dollar denominated bonds and securities issued by the government, making Malaysia highly susceptible to global financial fluctuations and instability,” Pua said.
Apart from that, Pua said Najib failed to address the financial community’s concern over the sovereign wealth fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) and its RM 42 billion debt load.
“The failure of the troubled investment firm to repay a RM2 billion loan in November 2014 has also hit 1MDB’s bonds and fuelled investor concerns about Malaysia’s economy,” said Pua, who is one of 1MDB’s staunchest critics.
In his speech today, Najib announced budget cuts of a mere 2.2 percent amounting to RM 5.5 billion from the initial RM 223.4 billion government operating expenditure.
However, the Prime Minister’s office budget of RM65.6 billion remained uncut. –The Rocket
