IT was a tactical move by the Pakatan Harapan leadership to allow the second reading (the policy stage) of Budget 2021 to pass through Parliament, said Subang MP Wong Chen.

He said after the winding-up speech by Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz, PH MPs had received a message from opposition Leader and PKR president Anwar Ibrahim not to insist on divisional voting.

“We didn’t know what was going on and we assumed that it was a tactical move by the PH leadership.

“This was mentioned to us after the vote was over, where PH leaders gathered and had a long discussion on what we should do next,” the PKR lawmaker said on Facebook today after the vote.

The supply bill was passed at the policy stage by voice vote today, after an insufficient number of MPs stood up to request a division vote, where ballots are individually counted.

The bill still has to go through the committee stage (third reading), which begins on Monday, where allocations for each ministry will be debated and voted upon.

In his winding up speech today, Tengku Zafrul announced several changes to be made to the budget that would benefit more front-line workers and rural groups.

Wong said the PH leadership wanted the budget to pass the policy stage so that MPs can scrutinise every proposal made.

“Then we can question every single ministry and vote on it.

“We didn’t pass this (today), but there will be a second chance to defeat the government on December 17,” Wong added.

He said that all eyes will now be on the supply bill at the committee stage to see the details and changes proposed.

“The increments could be up to hundreds of millions. We are not sure until he tables it as a white paper document at the committee stage, then we would know the details.”

“I hope the people will understand this matter as I believe that whether the tactical move was wrong or right, there is a second bite to it,” he said, addressing anger from PH supporters that more opposition members had not stood up to demand a division vote.

Only 13 lawmakers from the opposition, including former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, stood up – two votes short of the required 15.

Among the changes Tengku Zafrul announced to the original budget is the expansion of the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) i-Sinar programme to 8 million contributors, and to allow RM10,000 withdrawals instead of RM6,000 over 12 months.

The moratorium on bank loan repayments will also be continued for B40, M40 and small businesses.

A one-off assistance of RM300 was also extended to other front-liners, such as the police and military, where previously the original budget only announced a RM500 assistance for healthcare workers.

Tengku Zafrul also said Sabah would receive an additional RM50 million to fight Covid-19.

Meanwhile, the controversial RM85.5 million allocation for the Special Affairs Department (Jasa) will also be slashed, although the finance minister did not say by how much. – November 26, 2020.