MPs must stand up to be counted
IT WAS a shame indeed for Budget 2010 to be important only to 129 MPs when the people elected 222 of them in all to represent them in the Dewan Rakyat, the powerful national legislature.
Is speaking for or against the money bill during more than a month of debate sufficient show of interest in the people’s welfare? Were those who spoke passionately for or against some aspects of the government’s proposed income and expenditure for next year present on Monday night? If they were not there the narrow margin of 66 ayes to the 63 nays should be on their conscience for the remaining months they have left as the people’s representative.
Indeed their constituents should find out whether their representatives, who had promised to do everything before they were elected during last year’s March 8 general election, were present in the Dewan Rakyat at 11.15pm on Monday and that they should take them to task if they were not.
No doubt the lateness of the hour is inconvenient. Also Awal Muharram, Christmas and New Year’s Day being just around the corner, everyone is already in a holiday mood. But then no one forced them to be the first among equals, they volunteered and even asked, nay even begged, to be elected.
The ruling party has 137 MPs, yet only 66 were present. Some of them, probably those still in the city, rushed in at the last minute after they were paged. The Pakatan Rakyat has 82 MPs. If they were so opposed to the government’s budget proposals they could have been there in larger numbers and the national money bill would have been voted out, rejected for the first time in the history of the country.
They would then have truly put their money where their mouth is. It would have been seen as a no-confidence vote in the government, something the PR had been trying to do for much of last year in order to scuttle the government.
Of course they would be blamed if the government servants did not get their salaries on time but at least they would have be seen as more organised.
But for the government a defeat of its proposed budget would be far more disastrous. The fallout from it would have far reaching consequences for the future of the country and the ruling Barisan Nasional and Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.
It is his government’s first budget and he had been working very hard to restore the people’s confidence in the ruling group ever since he was sworn in as prime minister in April. He must have been disappointed that his RM191.5 billion proposed budget themed "1Malaysia, Prosperity for All" managed to just scrape through by a mere three votes. It seems there is much more that he has to do
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