Tapah member of parliament M Saravanan turned saviour for the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) at the Dewan Rakyat yesterday with his vote ensuring the approval of the Supply Bill 2010, better known as Budget 2010.

The drama began late last night when the Dewan Rakyat speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia called for voting for the passing of the bill, deemed crucial for the government's expenditure for next year.

saravanan kl draft plan 220808 02 The ruling coalition managed to get the bill approved with a wafer-thin majority, 66 against 63 votes of the opposition bloc, thanks to Saravanan's late-minute vote.

He was among the last BN MP to walk into the House before the votes were taken.

"I had a function to attend in the city last night. During the event, I got a call from someone in Parliament asking me to rush to Dewan and that a voting is being conducted in the Supply Bill.

"It was about 10.40pm when I managed to relieve myself from the function and rushed to Parliament.

"I was in the nick of the time as the Speaker allowed me to cast my vote. To my relief later I learnt that the Bill was passed by a very tiny majority," Saravanan, who is also Federal Territories and Urban Well-being deputy minister, told Malaysiakini when contacted.

Najib was called back too

He also thanked his lucky stars, because the function he attended was close to the Parliament, enabling him to rush to the Dewan Rakyat within minutes after being alerted.

The failure to pass the Bill, which is basically the 2010 government budget, would have resulted in the ruling coalition needing to retable the entire budget, resulting in throwing a spanner in the works of development projects planned by the ruling government.

It is also considered a vote of no confidence in the government.

A defeat would be a major embarrassment for Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, who were both in the Dewan Rakyat until late yesterday, as this could have been the first budget not passed by Parliament in the nation's history.

Both Najib and Muhyiddin too had to rush to the Parliament to ensure the budget was approved in their favour.

'Not honourable' to try to catch gov't with its pants down