Despite the shortcomings of the Pakatan Rakyat shadow budget, the ability of its three component parties to produce the document with their own resources should be applauded, says Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (Ideas) chief executive officer Wan Saiful Wan Jan.

NONE "We cannot deny the fact that they (Pakatan) produced an alternative budget is a step forward.

"Even when the government's budget is tabled, the information is actually gathered by civil servants," he told a budget forum in Shah Alam last night.

He pointed out that none of the Barisan Nasional component parties have ever embarked on such a project at the party level, including in states where it is the opposition.

"When the prime minister tabled the budget, everyone (BN component party) just supported it. What are their suggestions and proposals before this, we do not know," Wan Saiful ( above ) said.

He also pointed out that unlike countries with a shadow cabinet, there was no institutional funding for the opposition to hire its manpower to produce a shadow budget.

Pua: Shortcomings due to data limitation

Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua, who was part of the forum, had acknowledged that the shadow budget was incomplete due to lack of data.

NONE "There are shortcomings because we have limitation in terms of data.

"What we focused is on how we are going to spend so we can present the policies that we are going to execute when we are in Putrajaya," he said.

At this, forum moderator, Universiti Islam Antarabangsa (UIA) lecturer Maszlee Malik appeared amused at Pua's confidence that the opposition will capture federal power and laughingly corrected Pua that it should be "(If) Pakatan captures Putrajaya".

Maszlee lamented that the budget debate in Malaysia was not as rigorous compared to countries such as the United Kingdom(UK).

"In UK, when (UK finance minister George) Osborne tables the budget, it will be debated and telecast live, discussed in the media and perhaps in forums - but not debates, debate is not our culture," he said in an apparent swipe at premier Najib Abdul Razak's remark against debates .

"The person who tables will need to defend the budget and those on the shadow cabinet will also discuss it, this will make the rakyat more matured".

Pakatan had previously complained that Najib, who is also Finance Minister, was absent and had left it to BN backbenchers to defend the budget when the opposition gave their rebuttal in Parliament.

NONE Another panelist, BN's Kota Belud MP Abdul Rahman Dahlan ( left ) commended Pakatan for attempting to produce a shadow budget but then went on to rip into the document for being unrealistic.

"That is why I prefer to debate the alternative budget in Parliament than the one tabled by the prime minister.

"Because I am worried if the rakyat do not understand (the shadow budget), it will have dire consequences and is dangerous to the economy," he said.

Abdul Rahman also brushed aside claims that the federal budget was an election budget, stating that ultimately it was people-friendly and labeling it was not important.

He also praised the Bantuan Rakyat 1Malaysia (BR1M) programme as it was more targeted in helping the needy compared to the subsidy system which gave subsidies across the board, including the wealthy.

'No need to be gaga over goodies'

Meanwhile, although Wan Saiful agreed in principle that the BR1M system was better than subsidies, he questioned the people's over-gratitude for such goodies.

azlan "Why is there the need to 'worship' politicians for the promises (goodies)... it is too much to be 'worshipping' them for distributing money that is taken from us by force through taxation," he said.

To this, Abdul Rahman said there was no wrong in this as the government could have allocated the money to other groups at the expense of another.

"True, it is the rakyat 's money, the government is only prioritising it but there is also several choices.

"When the most important segment (of society) is given priority, of course that segment can be thankful because the money given to them could have been given to someone else.

"So it is being thankful in this context," he said.

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