Datuk Seri Najib Razak failed his first test in Parliament as Finance Minister as he was nowhere around this morning to present a revised 2009 Budget for debate or to explain why a revised 2009 budget is not necessary.
When the Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim spoke this morning, the two blocks of Cabinet benches were totally empty – not a single Cabinet Minister was present.
Not only the second Finance Minister even the two deputy Finance Ministers were absent.
Where have they gone to? What could be more important than the start of the parliamentary debate on the 2009 Budget unless Parliament is totally unimportant in their eyes.
In fact, as I pointed out to the House, there was not a single official representative of the government who was present in the House to respond to the Pakatan Rakyat demand that the new Finance Minister should present a revised 2009 budget because the whole set of the 2009 Budget data tabled in Parliament on August 29 had been made obsolete in the past six weeks by the worst economic crisis confronting the world in 80 years.
In fact, the Barisan Nasional government has lost all sense of direction and is presenting a spectacle of a “headless administration” in Parliament – may be this was why there was the need for an “agricultural” study tour of BN MPs to Taiwan last month!
Anwar said UMNO and Barisan Nasional Ministers are guilty of “arrogance of power”
They are also guilty of the height of irresponsibility and contempt for Parliament.
Umno Ministers are more preoccupied with the Umno crisis and party elections than the world economic crisis and its impact on Malaysia – when the party crisis of Umno and other Barisan Nasional component parties after the March 8 “political tsunami” must be completely subsidiary and subordinate to the larger economic crisis facing the country as a result of the global financial meltdown.
Sad and pathetic that Parliament will have to debate an outdated and obsolete 2009 Budget – which cannot inspire confidence in the new Finance Minister or the entire BN Cabinet. Debating history of budget instead of budget for 2009.