Ismail Sabri should not trifle with his own 2023 Budget by dissolving Parliament before the Budget was debated and passed by Parliament

One of the possible scenarios making its rounds in the country is that the 2023 Budget will be presented to Parliament on Friday, October 7 and Parliament will be dissolved on Monday, 10th October 2022.

If this happens, the 2023 Budget when presented to Parliament on Oct. 7 will be the non-budget of the year. Ismail will also be following in the footsteps of one of the worst parliamentary examples of Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad as Prime Minister in 1999.

The Prime Minster, Ismail Sabri should not trifle with his own Budget by dissolving Parliament before it was debated and adopted by Parliament, and this was why yesterday, I had called on Ismail to announce latest by October 6 that the 15th General Election will not be held this year because of monsoon and floods season or nobody will be interested in the 2023 Budget when it is presented on Oct. 7 but only on the question whether Parliament will be dissolved.

The 2023 should spell out the government’s plan in fighting rising prices and inflation, increase the country’s economic growth, make Malaysia attractive to foreign investors, reduce the people’s hardships and promote the Prime Minister’s “Keluarga Malaysia” concept of uniting Malaysians regardless of race, religion or region..

But are these objectives mean nothing to Ismail Sabri despite his recent appearance at the United Nations General Assembly that his 2023 Budget could be trifled with?

I have said that if Ismail Sabri is so irresponsible as to seek the consent of the Yang di Pertuan Agong to seek the dissolution of Parliament after the presentation of the 2023 Budget, the Yang di Pertuan Agong will have two solid grounds to decline to give his consent, viz:

1. Parliament should not be made an object of mockery or political games, let alone trifle with the 2023 Budget, but be allowed to debate and pass the 2023 Budget unless there is a vote of no confidence in Parliament on the Prime Minister and it is not possible to find a person to be Prime Minister; and

2. The monsoon and floods disasters, which cost 54 lives and loss of RM6.5 billion of property, public and personal, last year.

The time now is for all preparations to be focussed on the national disaster that will take place when the monsoon and floods season are in full swing to ensure the minimum loss of lives and property.

It will be a terrible double indictment on the premiership of Ismail Sabri if he trifles with his own 2023 Budget and the worst floods in the nation’s history take place in his tenure as Prime Minister, for it will wash away not only his “Keluarga Malaysia” concept but all the things he had done.

Dare Ismail Sabri act in the national interests, which must take greater and overriding priority over that of the “court cluster” in the UMNO leadership?

If the Attorney General can act on the overriding national interest by appealing against the decision of the Kuala Lumpur High Court on the corruption charges against the UMNO President, Zahid Hamidi, can the Prime Minister of the country do less?