KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 27 — Democratic Action Party (DAP) lawmaker Lim Kit Siang said that Opposition bowing to pressure following the Budget 2021 vote is a misconception apart from those who stood up calling for an en-bloc vote.
He added that every lawmaker from the Opposition side including the 13 MPs who stood up calling for division opposed the Budget 2021 by saying “no” after Speaker Datuk Seri Azhar Azizan Harun called for voice voting.
“There is firstly the misconception that the Opposition MPs, apart from those who stood up calling for a division, had succumbed to pressure and voted in support of the 2021 Budget.
“This is not the case. The Opposition MPs, including those who stood up calling for a division, all voted against the 2021 Budget — but it was by a very loud negative voice vote against ‘Yes’ voice vote and not by division, with every MP recording ‘yes’ or ‘no’ in the vote,” the Iskandar Puteri MP said in a statement today.
Kit Siang said that he welcomed the protest over the Budget 2021 vote in Parliament yesterday showing that the quest for “New Malaysia” is still alive.
He added that Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’a last-minute turn not to call for a division completely sent him “in the dark”, while saying that he could surmise the reasons for the latter doing so.
Kit Siang said that the reasons could be the Yang di-Pertuan Agong’s advice to support Budget 2021 and the winding-up speech by Finance Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz where he announced extra goodies.
Yesterday, the first reading of Budget 2021 saw that it persevered after only 13 MPs stood up calling for the en-bloc vote and won the majority of voice vote.
The second reading of the Budget 2021 will be on Monday after it will take on Committee Stage followed by the Third Reading before it is passed.
