A Sabah PKR Youth leader has slammed Warisan after its MPs sat out a budget vote on Monday to show their dissatisfaction with opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim.
Razeef Rakimin, Sabah PKR Youth information chief, singled out Warisan whip Rozman Isli, saying the excuse given by the latter was childish.
“This isn’t the first time I have reprimanded Warisan leaders for their arrogance, and in fact, I was told that such behaviour would be their downfall. And this is what happened in the last state election,” he said in a statement.
Earlier today, Rozman, who is the Labuan MP, was quoted as saying that their absence was deliberate to “send a signal” to Pakatan Harapan, saying Warisan was tired of the infighting in the opposition bloc.
He also said the party was frustrated with Anwar over the “last-minute instructions” to opposition MPs last week when a vote was taken on the federal budget at the policy stage.
“We are still in the opposition bloc but we want to send a signal to our opposition leadership that we don’t want to be pushed around and I don’t think they are doing the right strategy (or) the right moves,” Rozman was quoted as saying.
Rozman added that Warisan MPs would continue to sit out on the bloc votes “for an unstipulated time frame.”
But Razeef said it was not the time for politicking just because one is unhappy with their ally. “You were voted for by the people to represent them in the Dewan Rakyat so carry out your responsibility.”
He said that they did not rule out the possibility that Warisan MPs had been directed by Dr Mahathir Mohamad to sabotage opposition efforts in retaliation for Mahathir’s failure to muster the support of 15 MPs to force a vote by division on the second reading of the Supply Bill last Thursday.
“I would like to remind them to prioritise the people instead of the interest of certain individuals,” Razeef said.
The estimates for the Prime Minister’s Department were approved by a division vote of 105-95 with 20 MPs absent, while the finance ministry estimates were approved, also in a division, by 107-95 with 18 absent.
Warisan has eight MPs.
PKR’s Christina Liew says family matters kept her away
Sabah PKR chairman Christina Liew said she was absent for the votes because she was in Sabah on family matters for a relative who underwent surgery.
Liew, who is MP for Tawau, was among Sabah MPs who were not in the hall when the division was held.
Ku Li snubs bloc vote to protest legitimacy of Muhyiddin’s government
Meanwhile, government backbencher Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah has continued to question the legitimacy of the Perikatan Nasional (PN) administration.
The Gua Musang MP was one of the five government lawmakers absent from both bloc votes on Budget 2021 allocations for the Prime Minister’s Department and the Finance Ministry this afternoon.
Despite the absences, the allocations were passed after no-shows from the opposition bench.
When contacted, Tengku Razaleigh’s aide said he had attended today’s sitting but departed before 2pm when the first vote was conducted.
“We went home before that (the first vote).
“Tengku Razaleigh already said he won’t participate in budget debates as long as he does not recognise the legitimacy (of the government),” the aide replied.
He added that the veteran MP will continue to sit out such votes until Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s support in the House is determined through a no-confidence motion.
The upcoming days will see 25 more rounds of voting before the budget can be passed in its entirety.
Tengku Razaleigh previously wrote a now-public letter to inform Dewan Rakyat Speaker Azhar Azizan Harun of his plan to skip the budget debate for as long as the PN government’s majority remained untested.
He also contended Azhar had contravened Parliament’s constitutionally protected independence by suggesting he seek the government’s agreement to table his no-confidence motion against Muhyiddin.
Ahead of the Budget 2021 policy-stage vote, the Gua Musang lawmaker had distributed his letter to other MPs in the Dewan Rakyat but was not present during the Nov 26 vote.
Tengku Razaleigh, who chairs the Umno advisory council, was not the only Umno MP to be absent for both rounds of bloc voting today.
Interestingly, Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi (BN-Bagan Datuk) and Najib Abdul Razak (BN-Pekan) were also not present.
Two more no-shows from the government bench were Richard Riot (GPS-Serian) and Willie Mongin (PN-Puncak Borneo).