Malaysian PM gains political lifeline with budget approval

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysia's Parliament approved the government's proposed 2021 budget on Thursday, throwing a political lifeline to embattled Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin amid strong resistance to his 9-month-old leadership.

Opposition lawmakers as well as members of his governing coalition had warned during three weeks of debate that they would reject the budget, citing insufficient funding to fight a surge in coronavirus cases and help those hit by the pandemic.

Finance Minister Zafrul Aziz made some minor revisions to the 322.5 billion ringgit ($79 billion) budget, the biggest ever, in his concluding speech Thursday in response to the complaints. He insisted that “this is a COVID-19 budget, a budget for survival and resilience."

In the end, the budget was approved despite the dissenting voices.

“A budget vote has always been a de facto vote of confidence or no-confidence in the government," said Ahmad Fauzi Abdul Hamid, a political science professor at Malaysia's University of Science.

Muhyiddin's “government is temporarily secure but it will continue to have to fight from bill to bill as it survives on a slender majority and on the goodwill of bigger parties in the (governing) coalition," he said.

Had Muhyiddin failed to obtain Parliament's support for the budget, it would have triggered new calls for him to resign or spur him to seek a general election, which is not favored during the surge in coronavirus cases. Malaysia's cases have jumped fivefold in two months to nearly 60,000.

Muhyiddin, 73, has only a slim two-seat majority in Parliament. He has been challenged by opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, who last month said he has majority support to form a new government with defections from Muhyiddin’s coalition.

The support reportedly...