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THERE was high drama in the Dewan Rakyat yesterday when the opposition unsuccessfully tried to bring proceedings to a halt over a technicality involving the RM7 billion economic stimulus package announced on Tuesday.
Deputy Speaker Datuk Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar adjourned the house at 12.30pm after opposition members of parliament claimed that the package unveiled by Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak needed to be tabled separately. But when proceedings resumed after lunch, Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia overruled the opposition's objections by saying that the package was part of the budget tabled by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi on Aug 29. He ruled that the fiscal measures introduced by Najib were not an additional budget but were supplementary measures to tackle the global economic slowdown. He said the Dewan Rakyat would not be contravening any of its standing orders or federal laws by continuing the debate on the budget. Pandikar Amin said the RM7 billion injection was a redistribution of savings derived from cuts in fuel subsidy. "It is not an additional budget. There is no change to the budget tabled at the policy level and no change to any figures to projections made in any documents or pamphlets before members." At this juncture, Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Husni Hanadzlah confirmed that the house was still debating the budget tabled by Abdullah, who was finance minister at that time. Earlier in the morning, opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim led the charge by repeatedly demanding to know if the house was debating the budget tabled by Abdullah or the "budget tabled by the deputy prime minister and new finance minister". "We wanted the figures. Now at the committee stage, which figures are we to use?" Datuk Kamaruddin Jaafar (Pas-Tumpat) told the house there were legal implications in the matter. "We have to be clear what we are going to debate now. Is it the budget tabled on Aug 29 or what was presented by the deputy prime minister on Tuesday?" he said, maintaining that Najib had tabled a new budget on Tuesday. Later in the lobby, Lim Kit Siang (DAP-Ipoh Timur) said the measures introduced by Najib were questionable. "This is unprecedented. What the finance minister has done yesterday was irregular, improper and unparliamentary. "I don't understand how he, with his advisers, can make such a basic elementary parliamentary error. This must be rectified. Otherwise, we will be debating something that has not been presented. "It is proper that the house should be adjourned and the deputy prime minister should be summoned by the speaker." Anwar said the opposition was criticised for walking out when Najib was outlining the stimulus package. "You know that at least 30 attempts were made to raise this point and to appeal to the speaker and finance minister to consider this. But we were just ignored and now we have problems." - nst
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