The parliamentary debate on 2023 Budget presented by Prime Minister-cum-Finance Minister Anwar Ibrahim on Friday begins tomorrow — eight days for policy debate and ten days for committee-stage debate.
One of the biggest questions is whether the parliamentary opposition — Perikatan Nasional — is prepared to commit itself to provide political stability in the next five years for Malaysia to reset and return to the original nation-building principles for Malaysia to become a first-rate world-class nation with a world-standard economic, educational, and social systems, and to reunite a very polarised plural nation.
The parliamentary opposition leader, Hamzah Zainudin, will open the debate tomorrow.
Will he call for the removal of the Official Secrets Act on the billion-dollar settlement of the 1MDB scandal with Goldman Sachs and for the revelation whether the monies recovered have gone to repay the billion-dollar 1MDB debts, so that Malaysia can start anew in the war against corruption and will ensure that the rule of law and good governance are practised in Malaysia?
Or will Hamzah keep quiet on the 1MDB scandal so as not to compromise the first “backdoor” Prime Minister after the Sheraton Move political conspiracy — i.e., Muhyiddin Yassin — in February 2020?
If Hamzah dare not touch on the 1MDB scandal, which made Malaysia infamous world-wide as a kleptocracy, Hamzah might as well not speak tomorrow.
(Media Statement by DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang in Petaling Jaya on Sunday, 26th February 2023)