WHILE the date of Malaysia’s 15th General Election (GE15) is solely at the discretion of Prime Minister (PM) Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob, he can do Malaysians a big favour by not rushing to dissolve the Parliament so soon after the tabling of Budget 2023 on Oct 7.
To recap, the tabling of Budget 2023 has been brought forward to Oct 7, three weeks earlier than its original date of Oct 28. In a statement, de facto law minister Datuk Seri Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said the PM had used his authority under Rule 11(2) of the Dewan Rakyat’s Standing Order to fix the sitting earlier.
In pre-empting speculation that the Parliament will be dissolved within a month after Budget 2023 is presented to Parliament, veteran politician and DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang described as “wrong and a bad example of the PM misusing his powers” should the august house be dissolved before the budget is passed.
“This happened once in Malaysia after the 2000 Budget was presented to the Dewan Rakyat on October 29, 1999 but before it was passed, the Parliament was dissolved while debating the Budget 2000 in mid-stream on Nov. 10, 1999,” lamented the Iskandar Puteri MP.
“I remember that day. It was a Tuesday and the sixth day of the debate on the 2000 Budget but MPs were not interested in the Budget 2000 as words had got around that Parliament was to be dissolved on that day.”
Kit Siang recalled asking the then deputy speaker who was presiding before Dewan Rakyat adjourned for lunch that day whether the Parliament would be dissolved but “the deputy speaker who is now Sabah’s governor (Tun Juhar Mahiruddin) said he did not know”.
“When Dewan Rakyat resumed after lunch at 2.30pm, the speaker announced that he had been informed that Parliament had been dissolved by the Yang di Pertuan Agong and the debate on the Budget 2000 ended abruptly for the holding of the 10th General Election in Malaysia,” revealed Kit Siang.
“But this is a wrong and bad example where the budget was (already) presented to Parliament and (the) Parliament (was) not allowed to debate and pass the budget but (instead) was dissolved for the holding of general election. It should not be followed by Ismail Sabri.”
Reiterating that it will be a misuse of the PM’s power should Ismail Sabri seeks the King’s consent to dissolve Parliament after Oct 7, Kit Siang called on the latter to “advise the PM to let the Parliament debate and pass Budget 2023 unless a no-confidence motion against the PM is adopted by Dewan Rakyat”. – Sept 9, 2022
