In the wake of PH’s sudden abandonment of the bloc voting in the second reading of the Budget 2021 yesterday, Anwar must publicly apologize to therakyat and PH component parties for his misjudgment, or else DAP should be decisive to separate with PKR, disband PH and regroup the opposition parties.
The Budget 2021 is far more significant than the previous budgets as it is considered by many as a motion of no confidence against Muhyiddin’s backdoor government. Since the Sheraton Move, PH leaders have repeatedly emphasized that Muhyiddin’s backdoor government must accept the test of Parliament through motion of no confidence, and have repeatedly attempted “counter-coups” to regain the mandate given by rakyat in the last general election. Therefore, the rakyat generally hoped that PH will reject the legitimacy of Muhyiddin’s backdoor government by rejecting the budget.
Also, before the budget voting, many PH MPs strongly criticized that the budget is unjust and does not help solve the current public health and national economic crisis. Some MPs even mentioned that they will resolutely oppose the budget, and hinted that some MPs from the opposite side would reject it as well, thus giving the rakyat the impression that the Budget could possibly be rejected. Unexpectedly, words spoke louder than actions, as PH couldn’t even send 15 MPs to force bloc vote. As a result, the Muhyiddin government passed the test, while PH supporters are immensely disappointed. As DAP received the instruction given by the opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, only one out of our 42 MPs stood up and demanded bloc voting. The outcome was embarrassing and can be said as the biggest humiliation in the Parliament that DAP has ever faced in history.
Much to our surprise, some PH MPs only expressed their stance on social media after the vote, and argued that they will vote in the committee stage and the third reading. We opined that this could be seen as an attempt to evade political responsibility. The second reading of the bill is the time for MPs to categorically state their stance based on principles. If the second reading can be rejected, there will be no third reading at all. Since the MPs avoided bloc voting in the second reading, how can they convince the rakyat that they will seriously object to it during the third reading? If the third reading can be voted via bloc voting, why didn’t they vote by bloc voting during the second reading?
Even if PH was unable to amass more than half of the MPs to vote against the Budget at the second reading stage, the rakyat will not blame PH for the failure. After all, PH has tried its best to fight in Parliament. The rakyat would like to see PH’s resolute stance in resisting the backdoor government instead of its embarrassing surrender.
Anwar repeatedly argued that he has obtained a strong majority in Parliament, which could even lead to the success of a counter-coup. However, he hasn’t so far shown a substantive name list, thus rakyat can be hardly convinced. Initially, Anwar had the opportunity to restore and boost the morale of PH in Parliament, yet the misjudgement brought about a serious political public relations crisis that dismantled the credibility of PH and extinguished rakyat’s passion and hope for reforms.
Since Anwar admitted that he instructed MPs from PKR and DAP not to go through bloc voting, he must take full responsibility for his misjudgement and apologize to all PH supporters. If Anwar is still insistent that his judgment was correct, then the DAP central leaders should decisively sever ties with PKR, put a stop to the alliance to automatically disband Pakatan Harapan, and only maintain minimal cooperation with opposition parties.
As the largest political party in Parliament, DAP should not repeatedly compromise our core values and idealisms for the so-called big pictures. I advocate that DAP should use our own logo in the upcoming general elections, and negotiate with other political parties to form alliances and government only after an election. Any political party that intends to form the government with DAP must also be aligned with the direction of our struggle for social democracy. Through this mechanism, DAP can avoid being used and “kidnapped” by other component parties, while returning to the right track of social democracy in order to fight for the values of pluralism, equality, secularism and justice, as well as to truly realize our vision of Malaysian Malaysia.