MP SPEAKS | For the first time,  the Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s desperate hurry for the dissolution of Parliament for the holding of an immediate 15th general election seems to be close at hand and the possibility of Parliament being dissolved after Oct 7, after the 2023 Budget has been presented to the Dewan Rakyat, cannot be ruled out.

The example of Parliament being dissolved after the Budget was presented but before it was passed by both Houses of Parliament and given the Royal Assent had happened once before in 1999, but I had said that Prime Minister Ismail Sabri should not be following this wrong and bad example, which tantamounts to the prime minister misusing his powers.

On  Friday, Oct 29, 1999, the 2000 Budget was presented to the Dewan Rakyat by the then finance minister Daim Zainuddin, but before the 2000 Budget was passed,  Parliament was dissolved while debating the 2000 Budget in mid-stream on Nov 10, 1999.

I remember the day of the dissolution of Parliament in 1999. It was a Tuesday and the sixth day of the debate on the 2000 Budget, but Members of Parliament were not interested in the 2000 Budget as words had gone around that Parliament was to be dissolved on that day.

I remember asking the then deputy speaker...