KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 9 — DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang today said that the highly anticipated Budget 2023 wasn't anything special despite it being the highest ever budget in Malaysia's history.

The MP for Iskandar Puteri said Budget 2023 will not stop Malaysia's decline on the global and regional stage as the country will continue to struggle to compete with other nations whose economy and quality of life are way better.

"Budget 2023, though the biggest in the nation’s history, is no game-changer to resolve the economic crisis, raise the quality of education, ensure that Malaysia will not be a poor performer in another global pandemic or make Malaysia a world-class great nation.

"It rained money, with goodies all around, but did nothing to reverse the trajectory of the country in the past few decades of losing out to Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, Vietnam and more countries to come in future years.

"And clearly, it will do nothing to ensure that Malaysia’s ranking and score in the 2022 Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI) which will be announced in January next year will not be worse than TI CPI 2021," he said in a statement this morning.

"What Malaysia needs is a reset of nation-building principles and policies to transform Malaysia from the trajectory of a kleptocracy, kakistocracy and a failed state to a "tiger” economy and a world-class great nation," he added.

Lim said Malaysia still needs separation of powers with the rule of law and an independent judiciary so the country can have a healthy Parliamentary democracy following decades of abuse.

To do so, he urged everyone to vote for Pakatan Harapan in the upcoming general elections and elect Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim as the next prime minister.

"I call on Malaysians regardless of race, religion or region to stand solidly behind PH to make Anwar Ibrahim the tenth Prime Minister of Malaysia in our journey to make Malaysia a world-class great nation, if not in this decade, at least by Malaysia’s Centennial," he added.

Budget 2023 was tabled last Friday with its allocation increasing to RM372.3 billion compared to RM332 billion for Budget 2022.

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