ADUN SPEAKS | The war of position has long been over; the Pakatan Harapan opposition was able to convince the people that there was nothing to be gained from the lopsided Budget 2021.

Given this, the opposition was waiting for D-Day to signal the war of manoeuvres to defeat the budget and send home the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government through the front door.

But on Nov 26, it was not the D-Day that was expected, neither was there going to be a war of manoeuvres.

Just based on certain promises of changes to the budget, the call for a bloc vote to defeat the budget at the policy stage did not take place.

Only 13 MPs from Pejuang and Amanah stood up for a bloc vote on the budget, a procedure that would have allowed for the registration of individual positions on the budget, in other words, a method that would have allowed for a policy stand against it.

However, since the MPs other than the 13 did not stand up, the bulk of the opposition acquiesced in favour of the budget, which means that they supported the budget of the backdoor government.

The leader of the opposition, Anwar Ibrahim, later justified the refusal to engage in the bloc vote that could have possibly defeated the budget, as...