MP SPEAKS | As questions remain whether the Perikatan Nasional government is able to pass Budget 2021 with its slim majority and revolt in its ranks, they have turned back and said any defeat of the budget would have dire economic consequences. They claim that emoluments for civil servants and Covid-19 frontliners will be unpaid; whilst the government will not be able to grant assistance to the rakyat.

Any federal government budget tabled to Parliament is a supply bill, under Article 100 of the Federal Constitution. Traditionally, under the Westminster system, a defeat of a Supply Bill is equivalent to a vote of no confidence...