I REFER to the report “Warisan tidak hadir Dewan Rakyat, persoal kepimpinan Anwar.” 

Opposition lawmakers have every right to be frustrated with their leader Anwar Ibrahim over the “last-minute instructions” issued to them at last Thursday’s Budget 2021 policy-stage vote.

But no lawmaker has the right to be absent from parliament without justification. Frustration and anger at the leadership do not justify absence from a division vote. And that includes a lawmaker’s protest over the legitimacy of the government.

Lawmakers owe a duty to the rakyat to be present in the Dewan Rakyat. Period.

Lawmakers should know that there are two main stages to getting a budget through parliament. The first is the policy stage which was completed last week. The second is the committee stage, which started yesterday.

Anwar has explained his decision not to proceed with a division vote.

While the decision “had put everyone in a very difficult position”, Anwar has also vowed that he would be calling for division votes during the committee stage when each ministry’s budget is debated and put to the vote.

To his credit, Anwar stood up in parliament yesterday and kicked off the Budget 2021 committee stage debate by attacking the allocations given to the Prime Minister’s Department.

But he lost in the first two division votes yesterday. The second was on the Finance Ministry’s allocation. During both, there were notable absences on both the government and opposition benches.

The “decisive victory” for the government led to shouts of 2-0 from the government bench. There are 25 more debates to go before the supply bill is tabled for third reading and a final vote on December 17.

Will the lawmakers continue to be absent in dereliction of their duty to the rakyat?

Let it be known that elsewhere in parliamentary democracies, governments have been defeated on particular measures contained within budgets. For example, in 1994, the then British government was defeated on a proposal to increase the rate of VAT on fuel. This forced the chancellor (finance minister) to bring forward a new package of measures to deal with the unexpected loss of revenue.

The defeat might not be fatal to the government that would bring it down. But it is likely that the government would face a vote of no-confidence shortly afterwards, as its ability to command the will of the majority of the members in parliament would be in question.

So c’mon YBs! Be the honourable. Do the honourable.

Don’t be in dereliction of your duty to the rakyat. – December 1, 2020.

* Hafiz Hassan reads The Malaysian Insight.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.