Budget 2021: Anwar sympathises with Tengku Zafrul for being a victim of politicians

KUALA LUMPUR: Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has expressed his sympathy to Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Mohd Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz for having to comply with the 'political will' of certain parties in preparing the 2021 Budget.

While debating the Supply (Budget) Bill 2021 in the Dewan Rakyat today, the Port Dickson Member of Parliament said the allocation should be channelled to other more urgent matters.

"But on this, I sympathise because the Minister of Finance is not a politician. People put him in as a minister. I want to tell the Minister of Finance, if it is like this, the one who has to answer is the minister himself.

"So as a sympathetic friend, just cancel (certain allocations)," he added.

Anwar said this when referring to the allocation of RM85.5 million to the Department of Special Affairs (JASA) under the Ministry of Communications and Multimedia, and the one-off grant of RM8.6 million to the Penggerak Komuniti Tempatan (PeKT) under the Ministry of Housing and Local Government (KPKT).

Anwar said it seemed unreasonable when many other more important allocations were cut, and given way to the establishment of JASA, which he claimed was a tool of political propaganda.

Apart from that, he said, the non-governmental organisation (NGO), Penggerak Komuniti Negara is also a political tool of certain groups of ministers.

"That is what I mentioned earlier, the Finance Minister is a victim of politicians. You may give any nonsensical argument, people just cannot accept.

"You say sympathy with the people, give RM300 to a fisherman, for rice subsidies, but for political cronies, continue the dirty propaganda, more than RM80 million is given (to JASA).

"I ask the Minister of Finance to cancel this allocation, also to KPKT with the NGO... Where is the one-off grant coming from? RM8.6 million for the pleasure of this group of the KPKT minister. How can this be possible” he asserted.

Anwar said he considered the matter as 'unprecedented' as an allocation of that amount could be included in other matters more related to the government's efforts to address COVID-19.