PAS lawmakers’ abstention from voting on Budget 2018 shows that the party is pandering to the Barisan Nasional ahead of the 14th general election, analysts said.

Ilham Centre executive director Hisomudin Bakar said in the Westminster system, one took a neutral stand in Parliament when one wished to go along with what the ruling government proposed.

“This means PAS is not opposed to BN’s Budget 2018 and is indirectly supporting the budget.

“Such an attitude is contradictory to the party’s traditional practice of speaking out against BN in or outside Parliament,” Hisomudin told The Malaysian Insight.

He said this did not mean PAS should object Budget 2018 for the sake of objection, but it should highlight issues in the budget that needed to be addressed.

Eleven out of 14 PAS MPs abstained from voting on Budget 2018 on Monday. 

Only Mahfuz Omar (Pokok Sena) voted against the budget while PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang (Marang) and Wan Hassan Mohd Ramli (Dungun) were absent.

PAS mouthpiece Harakah Daily said the Islamist party abstained from voting because there were party MPs were for and against the budget. 

Penang Institute political studies programme head Dr Wong Chin Huat, went a step further in saying PAS’ actions showed it was an unofficial BN coalition partner.

“This signals what will happen if BN loses parliamentary majority in GE14 but remains the largest bloc. 

“PAS will likely formalise its coalition with BN and get a substantial share in the cabinet,” said Wong, adding that PAS’ abstention would also deepen suspicions of an alleged financial relationship between Umno and PAS, which both have denied.

H said smaller opposition political parties like the People’s Progressive Party had an informal pact with the Alliance in Perak in 1969. 

Alliance with Umno, MCA, and MIC was the precursor to BN. It was renamed BN in 1973 with the addition  of six more parties – PPP, Gerakan, PAS, PBB, Sabah Alliance Party, and Sabah United People’s Party.

Some, however, argued it was within PAS’ right to abstain from voting in the Dewan Rakyat.

“There is nothing wrong with abstaining. It is allowed in Parliament. Although it’s seen as undecided, it’s still a decision. 

“It is wrong for us to condemn PAS because it is within their right to abstain. This is democracy,” said Dr Mohd Azizuddin Mohd Sani, Politics and International Relations Associate Professor in Universiti Utara Malaysia’s School of International Studies.

Another political observer Prof Dr Nik Ahmad Kamal Nik Mahmod said PAS’ abstention signified the party’s stand.

“It is the way a party decides on a particular pattern for voting through the party whip. 

“It’s the strategy for whatever political aims PAS wants to achieve,” he said

Budget 2018 was passed at the policy stage on Monday, with 107 MPs voting for, 59 against, and 11 abstaining. The budget is now at the committee stage of debate. – November 15, 2017.