COMMENT | I am appalled that Malaysia’s strongest ever opposition bench – 108 out of 220 now – failed to vote on Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s Budget 2021 yesterday because only 13 MPs stood up to demand a formal vote, termed “division”, less than the threshold of 15.

I am more appalled that some MPs later claimed that they voted “nay” to the budget in the “voice vote”, thinking the public are fools who do not understand that a voice vote is basically a ritual.

The issue is, however, larger than a failing parliamentary opposition leader who has failed to form a shadow cabinet and table a shadow budget because he has been too busy with getting the numbers to become prime minister.

The issue is that a shared cynicism in our political class – on both sides of the divide – that treat Parliament as merely the...