After budget, there will be three weeks of policy debate before voting, explains Rafizi

(Rakyat Post) – There has been much talk about how the opposition will use the tabling of the 2016 Budget by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak to prove the house has lost confidence in the premier.

But how exactly is that done?

Speaking to Pandan Member of Parliament, Rafizi Ramli explained the step by step the process of the Budget bill — which will be tabled after the Friday prayers — as well as where the opposition aims to defeat it.

“Starting from Monday next week, there will be a policy debate, which takes two to three weeks. After that there will be voting,” he said.

He said the voting will be to pass the “Supply Bill”.

“This is where it is voted to pass the bill at the policy stage. This will be the first opportunity to vote down the budget which also translates into a vote of no confidence.”

The PKR secretary-general said if the budget is passed at the policy stage then it will go to the committee stage.

“This stage is where the actual allocation to individual ministries are debated. It will start with the Prime Minister and how much he is allocated and the break down of that amount.

“Usually the committee stage’s debate is not long, it is sharp and direct to the allocation, but in the committee stage for each ministry, there will be voting which presents us with another round of voting that we can defeat.

“If the Prime Minister’s Department’s budget is shot down or any other ministry’s is shot down, it also tantamount to a vote of no confidence. How can the government function if ministries can’t work.”

He said if a ministry’s budget is shot down, it will be a problem for that ministry to function.

“It means it won’t be given any budget.”

Rafizi said he was certain that even if that happens, it would be argued that it does not translate into a vote of no confidence and that it was also an individual budget allocation that was shot down.

“But do not forget that that one budget is part of the whole budget and if one part of it is not passed it will affect the whole budget.”

Rafizi said such an occurrence had never happened in Malaysia before and will be unprecedented.

The closest example in a Commonwealth country, he revealed, would be the 1975 Australian constitutional crisis where then Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam of the Australian Labor Party  was dismissed by Governor-General Sir John Kerr who later appointed the leader of the opposition, Malcolm Fraser, as Prime Minister, following the defeat of Whitlam’s Budget bill.

“The Senate did not support Whitlam, blocking supply to the government and this went on for two to three months, enabling the government to function for that period of time, which then led to his dismissal.”

He said if this happened in Malaysia it would not drag for a long time and a Barisan Nasional leader will have to appear before the King and indicate he has the support of the majority.