PETALING JAYA: Despite yesterday’s approval of the 2021 budget at the policy stage, political analysts say Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin is not in a safe position yet.
Azmi Hassan, a former lecturer with Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, said although many saw the approval as a confidence vote for Muhyiddin, the budget can still be rejected in the upcoming debate at the committee stage, which will see the MPs going over the details of the proposals.
“Muhyiddin is not out of the woods yet, however, the decision reached yesterday demonstrated that the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government is willing to accommodate the dissenting voices in the coalition,” he told FMT.
Azmi said the approval at policy stage only showed support for Muhyiddin as far as the budget was concerned.
“I don’t postulate the support on the bill (Supply Bill 2021) equates to support of Muhyiddin as prime minister (as a whole),” he said.
He also said yesterday’s decision has positioned Barisan Nasional (BN) in a good spot, especially when discussing matters concerning seat allocations.
“The big winner in the vote is BN and not PPBM. BN will have the upper hand against PPBM (on seat allocations),” he said.
BN had laid down two main conditions for supporting the bill – raising the withdrawal limit in the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) Account 1 to RM10,000, which was granted, and for a blanket extension of the loan moratorium until next June.
Mohd Izani Zain of Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) agreed with Azmi, saying that Muhyiddin would continue to come under political pressure.
Meanwhile, Universiti Malaya’s Awang Azman Pawi said the instability of the government would likely continue until the dissolution of Parliament and the election of a new government.
“The PN government is still fragile and can collapse at any time depending on the support from BN, especially Umno,” he said.