PARLIAMENTARIANS should vote according to their conscience instead of along party lines, especially when it comes to the crucial RM322.5 billion Budget 2021 tabled by the Perikatan Nasional government, said Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah.

The Gua Musang lawmaker told The Malaysian Insight Umno should not tell him what to do as he represented his constituency, not his party, in the Dewan Rakyat.

“I am elected by the people in Gua Musang. I stand with Umno but I don’t represent Umno in Parliament. I am the Gua Musang MP first.

“Sometimes, Umno decides to vote this way or that way. I don’t think so. That is not part of parliamentary democracy.

“We vote according to the wishes of our voters. If voters say choose white, we choose white. How do we know? We interact with them. We must attend to that,” Tengku Razaleigh told The Malaysian Insight.

The Umno advisory council chairman added that the democracy currently practised in Malaysia was faulty as there was a mix of socialist ideas in governance instead of following the Westminster system.

“Our democracy is dysfunctional. It’s not following the true form of parliamentary democracy. There is an injection of socialist ideas,” Tengku Razaleigh said.

The 11-term lawmaker also reminded politicians they are there to serve the people and not their political parties, as they took an oath in Parliament.

“When we were elected, we swore to uphold the constitution and safeguard the rule of law. This is a solemn oath.

“People forget about it and they lie in Parliament,” he said.

Tengku Razaleigh was commenting on the impending budget vote on November 26.

There has been talk of several lawmakers voting against the budget because of the lopsided allocations tabled on November 6.

This was after the Yang di-Pertuan Agong called on politicians to concentrate on efforts to fight Covid-19 and its impact on the country’s economy.

The king had also advised MPs to give their full support to the budget to help people badly affected by the pandemic.

Government has no money to service budget

Tengku Razaleigh, however, said he was not sure how he would vote for the budget, adding there would be a lot of debt undertaken to fulfil it.

“The government has no money. We cannot be borrowing money to pay for this kind of expenditure.

“If you have no money, you have to beg, borrow or steal.”

He said the government’s revenue projections will fall short as people will not make as much money during the pandemic compared with previous years.

“It is not going to be easy. You can’t realise the amount of revenue you hope to achieve but, at the same time, you have to fulfil the budget, or at least half of it.

“You cannot rely on revenue alone. Revenue is not forthcoming, and people are not making money. Small and medium enterprises are going bankrupt. A lot of them are going bankrupt,” Tengku Razaleigh added.

The latest data released by the Statistics Department last week showed the unemployment rate in Malaysia increased to 4.6%, with 737,500 people now jobless, compared with the situation before the pandemic in January, which was only at 3.2% with 511,700 people unemployed.

Time- and skill-related under-employment numbers also went up in September, as people were no longer working full-time or did not get jobs in tandem with their qualifications. – November 18, 2020.