PARTI Sarawak Bersatu (PSB) made good of their promise to stay away from the “meaningless” one-day sitting of the state assembly today.

All four of their lawmakers – president and Bawang Assan assemblyman Wong Soon Koh, Opar representative Ranum Mina, Johnichal Rayong Ngipa (Engkilili) and Tiong Thai King (Dudong) – did not show up for today’s sitting.

Speaker Mohamad Asfia Awang Nassar in his communication however said he had granted leave of absence to them under the assembly’s Standing Order 81.

Wong, in a statement yesterday, said PSB assemblymen will not attend the sitting over a previous ruling there will be no debate on the two supplementary state budgets tabled for legislative approval.

The restriction, Wong said, will therefore not give members of any opportunity to debate and raise relevant issues, in particular, the questions relating to the huge deficit in the 2019 and 2020 budgets as a result of the shortfall in oil and gas sales tax payable by Petronas.

He had earlier suggested a three-day sitting “to debate the presumptuous and unrealistic budget for 2019 and 2020, which had grossly overestimated income from the sales tax on petroleum products”.

“If the state assemblymen are not permitted to debate other issues during this sitting, then the sitting becomes a meaningless exercise. It will only be a formality to pass the supplementary budgets without any debate.”

The two supplementary bills, which seek a total of RM681,491,777 – RM299,171,014 for 2019 and RM328,320,763 for this year – from the Consolidated Fund for additional expenditure and tabled by Second Finance Minister Douglas Uggah was, as expected, passed.

The sitting began with a minute’s silence to pay respects to the 17 people in the state who died from Covid-19. – May 11, 2020.