Malaysia: Who betrayed who during Budget 2021 vote?
By: Kazi Mahmood
Tags: Budget, Anwar Ibrahim, Malaysia, Mahathir, Betrayal

The debate is still raging on who betrayed who during the fatal vote decision on the Budget 2021 in Malaysia. We believe it is a hidden agenda by Mahathir.

Mahathir pulls 13 MPs to side with him in a budget decision at the Parliament and calls Anwar Ibrahim and the PH ‘betrayers of the people’.

Scoring a magnificent point on a vote in Parliament, Mahathir mauled PH and its MPs saying opposition MPs are supporting a government propped up by bribes and gratification to MPs.

Anwar, the PH leader, urged the opposition MPs not to initiate a divisional vote against the budget yesterday. But Mahathir broke ranks with the PH and started a divisional vote that failed to get the 15 MPs needed.

Mahathir gathered only 13 MPs with him in a stand-off against Anwar and Muhyiddin. Some netizens hail the move as a victory for the 93-year-old.

As a result of this stand-off, netizens are attacking Anwar and the PH saying the elderly politicians can stand up on his feet while younger ones were sitting, betraying the people.

A divisional vote allows for the counting and recording of each MP’s vote. This would have shown whether PM Muhyiddin Yassin has the majority in Parliament or not.

If the attempt to initiate the divisional vote was successful yesterday, the government would have failed to pass the budget through its policy stage. It would have shown that Muhyiddin does not have a majority in Parliament.

But Mahathir gathered only 13 MPs with him in a stand-off against Anwar and Muhyiddin. Some netizens hail the move as a victory for the 93-year-old.

BACKSTABBING PH?

However, among PH party’s, some people see Mahathir’s move to break ranks from Anwar and the PH as a backstabbing attempt against the opposition.

An observer told Independent that Mahathir is only trying to pull down the PH with him because the opposition grouping did not give him support to regain the post of Prime Minister.

A source in Keadilan told Independent Mahathir is not in PH and Maszlee Malick, as well as Syed Sadiq, has left Mahathir’s group.

The other MPs who stood up except that four members of the Pejuang Party clearly were acting on their own capacity, the source says.

He says the situation came back to normal between the PH afterwards as the decision not to go for the divisional vote was made at the last minute.

It is when Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul started splashing goodies and agreed to every demand or even explanation asked by the opposition during the wrap-up session that Pakatan decided not to make a stand against the budget.

Mahathir recently blamed the 92 MPs of the Pakatan Harapan for not supporting him, thus allowing a ‘backdoor’ government to remain in power.

The 92 MPs are from the Keadilan, DAP and Amanah.

Nevertheless, Mahathir’s move in Parliament yesterday shows who are backing him in the PH. Six Amanah MPs stood with Mahathir to defy Anwar’s appeal not to block the budget at this stage.

After making it through the policy stage by a voice vote, MPs will now debate and question the budget in the committee stage starting next week.

On the other hand, Anwar defended his move not to block the budget in the policy stage because his allies in the Umno informed him they will not vote against it at this stage.

Malaysiakini says Anwar purportedly received indication from Umno rebels they would not oppose the budget at this stage.

In Parliament, there are 112 MPs on the government bench and 108 on the opposition bench. Muhyiddin would have defeated a show of force by the opposition by 112 against 108 unless Umno rebels vote against him.