PETALING JAYA, Sept 9 — The federal opposition has demanded at least seven committees to debate budget allocations in Parliament, a move it says will end the current practice where “billions of ringgit are approved with a brush stroke.”
Pakatan Rakyat (PR) lawmakers told reporters today that allocating MPs to committees would allow each ministry’s allocation to be debated for about four days instead of the two hours some portfolios received in Dewan Rakyat now.
“At the committee stage, only three MPs from each side speak for a few minutes before the ministry’s budget of several billion ringgit is rushed through with a swift brush stroke,” DAP international secretary Liew Chin Tong (picture) said of some smaller portfolios.
The PR alternative budget committee said that in other Westminster systems, each ministry would have its own committee of MPs from all parties to discuss the allocation over the entire committee stage.
It proposed a compromise for the upcoming budget session beginning on October 7, with MPs being divided into seven committees of 20 lawmakers each to discuss allocations simultaneously over the entire 18 days set aside for the committee stage instead of the current practice where the entire House becomes a committee.
Liew, who is Bukit Bendera MP, said that it would ensure that MPs could sit in serious discussion instead of merely “crossing swords” as members of the government or opposition.
PAS research chief Dzulkefly Ahmad said this would allow parties to make fuller use of the expertise of their lawmakers.
“Each committee member will be able to develop specialist expertise and experience over the long term,” the Kuala Selangor MP said, adding that each member should be given a RM10,000 allocation per month to hire a research team.
The Najib administration’s proposed budget for 2012 is seen as crucial in charting the country’s economic amid fears of a global double-dip recession due to the current debt crises in the United States and Europe.
Malaysia’s economy growth has also lost its momentum after rebounding to a 7.2 per cent jump last year, slowing to 4.9 and four per cent in the first two quarters of 2011 respectively.
Putrajaya is also grappling with surging inflation that has remained at a two-year high of over three per cent since March while having to slash a subsidy bill that would otherwise double to RM21 billion this year, severely jeopardising its commitment to reducing the budget deficit.
After it hit a two-decade high of seven per cent in 2009, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak pledged to reduce the deficit and has targeted a reduction to 5.6 per cent this year.
PKR vice-president Nurul Izzah Anwar said today that given the economic climate and the need to rein in the deficit, ruling Barisan Nasional lawmakers should also support the call for more stringent monitoring of ministerial allocations.
“Instead of being preoccupied with the political dictation of leaders of the day, we should focus on what is an
important budget given the economic setbacks the country is facing,” the Lembah Pantai MP said
Taken from Malaysian Insider Online
