BUDGET 2021 will require all government MPs to attend and vote next week, but one has died and another – Kinabatangan MP Bung Moktar Radin – is under Covid-19 quarantine until the end of the month.

Umno’s Grik MP Hasbullah Osman died two days ago, while Bung – who is also Sabah deputy chief minister and state Umno chief – was at the Sabah Assembly on Monday.

Sabah lawmakers have to undergo the mandatory 14-day Covid-19 quarantine when they arrive on the peninsula.

Although Speaker Azhar Azizan Harun rescheduled the Budget 2021 vote from November 23 to November 26, Bung will still miss the vote because he will only be cleared to attend Parliament on November 30.

This leaves the Perikatan Nasional government with 111 MPs facing the opposition’s 108, after the death of Batu Sapi MP Liew Vui Keong on October 2.

With the slim majority, analysts have anticipated that Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin might face a test of confidence with the supply bill, since other motions by MPs for a vote of no-confidence against him will not be given priority on the Dewan Rakyat’s agenda.

Subang MP Wong Chen posted on his Facebook page that the Budget 2021 policy vote had been moved to November 26.

Bung, who is also the Lamag assemblyman, had returned to Sabah on November 12 together with STAR president and Tambunan assemblyman Jeffrey Kitingan to attend the opening of the Sabah Assembly, which sat from November 12 to November 16.

Jeffrey, the MP for Keningau, is said to have left Sabah, but his whereabouts are unknown. However, Bung stayed back for the November 16 session.

Four other Sabah lawmakers did not return to attend the assembly sitting.

Three of them are from Warisan – former chief minister Mohd Shafie Apdal (Semporna/Senallang), Darell Leiking (Penampang/Moyog) and Mohammadin Ketapi (Lahad Datu/Segama), while Christina Liew (Tawau/Api-Api) is from PKR.

Sabah MPs from Pakatan Harapan confirmed to The Malaysian Insight that to date, the order for mandatory 14-day quarantine for MPs entering the peninsula from Sabah still stands, even if they had completed quarantine earlier and tested negative before the current Parliament sitting began. – November 18, 2020.