Immediately after standing up for his turn to debate the 2012 Budget Bill, Rembau MP Khairy Jamaluddin launched into a concerted offensive against the Pakatan shadow budget, hitting out at the opposition for daring to question the proposed expenditures.

He was the second person to debate the budget after Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim, who questioned major portions of the budget as being untenable sugar-coated goodies rather than a budget of any structural improvements to our fiscal health.

NONE Khairy ( right ), in turn, unleashed a near inexhaustible barrage against what he claimed was lack of “precision” in the Pakatan fiscal docments, i.e. the shadow budget and the Buku Jingga 100 days promises.

“A budget is a matter that requires precision, if you can’t get this right, how can you even deign to draft a budget,” he said, calling into question one of the alleged failings of the federal budget that Pakatan picked upon in their Buku Jingga

He was referring to the criticisms being levelled by Pakatan against the RM40,000 laptops allegedly issued to students in Mara institutions, which he said is erroneous.

This, he said, is a serious black mark against the capability of Pakatan to formulate real fiscal policies.

The Umno Youth chief also accused the opposition of a sudden chameleon u-turn, donning the “fiscally responsible” robes in their criticisms of the proposed Budget 2012 while being quite the “spendthrift” when making sweet promises in their Buku Jingga.

Nevertheless, he congratulated the opposition coalition for their first unified attempt at a shadow budget despite already being in existence as a pact for well-nigh three years.

“Only now they are coming up with a budget together, previously it was outsourced to the DAP. After three years, only now they did so, maybe because it is an election year.”

He alleged that such lack of precision not only exposes the underbelly of Pakatan’s lack of ability to come out with a respectable budget, but is also detrimental to the rakyat.

“The rakyat has been misled by the Pakatan budget. What is the source of the figures that they use?” he questioned, further calling for an accounting of the calculations and research done by Pakatan, if any, to come out with the shadow budget.

Khairy’s offensive received brickbats from Anwar, who poked fun at the fact that he does not have a ministerial position.

The lack of a cabinet portfolio is a sore point for the Rembau MP. His rival, Mukhriz Mahathir, lost in the race for Umno Youth head against him but was given a ministerial post.

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