The 2023 Budget of RM386 billion was presented in the last week of the first 100 days of the Anwar unity government and the most important question is whether the Parliamentary Opposition of Perikatan Nasional will again fail the test to ensure political stability for Malaysia in the next five years so that Malaysia can become a first-rate world-class nation by maximising on Malaysia’s human and natural resources.

The Anwar unity government is poised to pass the various tests of its first 100 days — hopes that Malaysia will stop losing out to other nations, the vote of confidence in Parliament last December, the Royal Address motion passed on Thursday and the 2023 Budget presentation yesterday.

Now is the time to translate the hopes of Malaysians into reality.

But the Parliamentary Opposition, led by the Parliamentary Opposition Leader, Hamzah Zainudin, has failed to rise up to the occasion to pass the Yang di Pertuan Agong’s test to ensure political stability for the next five years to allow the country to unite a very polarised plural nation and to reset and return to the original nation-building principles to become a first-rate world-class nation.

I have said that Hamzah failed both the minimum test — that Anwar Ibrahim would be the last Prime Minister the 16th Yang di Pertuan Agong will swear in before the end of his five-year reign next January — and the maximum test that there would be no change of Prime Minister for the next five years and that Anwar Ibrahim will be able to serve the full five-year term as the 10th Prime Minister.

It is not only the Anwar unity government that is undergoing a test, the Parliamentary Opposition of Perikatan National is also facing an acid test.

So far, the Anwar unity government has passed the various tests but not the Parliamentary Opposition of the Perikatan Nasional, with its divisive and toxic politics of lies, falsehoods, and fake news; the preposterous allegation that DAP is promoting Islamophobia; the failure of PAS President Hadi Awang to report to the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) Islamophobia Observatory about Islamophobia in Malaysia; the crude and insensitive ‘cosplay’ of PAS Youth “Himput” gathering in Terengganu with PAS members marching in the streets of Terengganu with replicas of medieval weapons and armour, and the baseless allegation of a PAS MP in Parliament that Menu Rahmah could cause cancer and autism.

Will the Parliamentary Opposition continue with its negative and thoughtless obstruction in Parliament during the debate on the 2023 Budget which begins on Monday?

Or will they declare in the Budget 2023 that there will be political stability for the next five years and that would not be another Sheraton Move political conspiracy to usher in “backdoor” governments?

The Prime Minister-cum-Finance Minister, Anwar Ibrahim, ended his 2023 Budget speech by urging MPs to fight corruption together.

He said: “We may have our differences, but don’t allow our differences to stop us from making meaningful change.

“If you want to compete, it should not be in a race to the bottom.

“A contest should be based on fastabiqul khairat — a race that brings good.”

Malaysians await the speech of the Parliamentary Opposition Leader on Monday to see whether Malaysia has a constructive or destructive Opposition.

(Media Statement of DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang in Petaling Jaya on Saturday, 25th February 2023)