Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's third budget draws bouquets and brickbats from parliamentarians.

Kamaruddin Jaffar, Tumpat MP

It is again a deficit budget and it has been that way for many years. It is not good for the country generally speaking. There is nothing really for the man on the street. For example, the corporate tax has been reduced but that will involve major companies, but income tax is not reduced, that is a major weakness in the cabinet, it does not address the (need) of the man on the street.

There is no mention whether there will be petrol price hike in the coming year or not. The government has guaranteed (no further price hikes) for 2006 but not for next year. Again, that is bad for the rakyat.

For education, there is increase of assistance for students in primary and secondary schools but there is no guarantee that every Malaysian student entering local universities will get support from the PTPTN (government's higher learning loan scheme) and scholarships.

For the normal people, the cost of living has increased tremendously which the Prime Minister agreed, but there is no concrete steps to address the challenges and problems of the rakyat on the street are facing in terms of education or petrol cost and inflationary pressure.

It is somewhat an election budget but I believe the rakyat will not be very happy because there is no promise that there will be no petrol price hike. The government should announce the freezing of petrol price hikes and give the rakyat what should be called a 'Petronas bonus'.

Instead of bonus for civil servants, there should be bonus for all the rakyat because Petronas has made revenues and contributed highly to the government. The government should also channel these revenues directly to the rakyat.

Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, Permatang Pauh MP

The world economic growth is forecasted at 4.9 percent but the government has forecasted higher than that. I think that is a bit too optimistic, they should be taking pre-cautionary measures in facing future political instabilities especially in the Middle East, which results in higher oil prices and inflation rate as China and India are emerging. We have to take all this into account.

I notice that there are a lot of goodies, for instance universities in Kelantan and Terengganu - which are long overdue - but we should be concerned about quality. I welcome the opportunity for the students but we don't want to have more unemployed graduates, there must be more job opportunities. The prime minister mentioned about unemployed graduates, thus what we want is quality.

It is a very pleasing budget for the rakyat, very optimistic, but I don't see any concrete measures really put in the engine to sustain higher growth. I think it is a budget for the general election that is coming soon.

However we must remember that the government still owes RM28 billion in (some) building of structures (projects), the contractors are not paid and some are really facing hardships because they are not being paid for whatever they have done.

Lim Kit Siang, Parliamentary opposition leader

There is no mention of the issue of corruption at all, this seems to suggest that the battle against corruption has not been given priority - which it should be given.

There are a lot of goodies, I think this budget more than anything else will be analysed not only by the economists but also by political analysts. It will also be seen in terms of its political implications.

Ong Ka Ting, Housing and Local Government Minister

Question: There is no announcement regarding the RM1.5 billion mega-incinerator in Broga in today's budget?

Today no announcement meaning no.

So the project is totally cancelled?

Today no announcement meaning no announcement.

Hishammuddin Hussein, Education Minister

What was announced today proves that what we have been saying previously were not mere rhetoric. The government will ensure the economy continues to grow. I believe the allegations against the prime minister (that the economy is not performing well) previously are unfair.

Question: Is this an election budget?

Of course not. This is the strength of the prime minister, he does not make decisions just for the sake of popularity. He has taken a lot of steps in the past few years - he resisted temptations to announce goodies and he has been very firm in wanting to reduce the deficit.

This year, we realise that all our efforts taken in the past few years have shown that our economy is strong, there has been reserves and we can give them out to the people, it does not (mean there) has to be an election to do that. The strength of Pak Lah's leadership is that it comes from the heart. That is where credit is due and must be given to him as prime minister.

Fu Ah Kiow, Deputy Internal Security Minister

I won't call it a pleasing budget but as the government, we are sensitive to the people's problems and we announced a people-friendly budget. This is what the government is supposed to be. We have to announce a budget which can help relieve the burden of the people.

At the same time, we have a lot of announcements, which were meant to spur the economic growth. It is a balanced budget that addresses the need of the people and help spur economic growth.

On allocations for the implementation of the Independent Police Complaints and Misconducts Commission:

This has been mentioned many times and the prime minister has repeatedly said we accept the proposal in principle but we are waiting for the Attorney-General's Chambers to conclude their study. To the question of its operating cost, those are mere technical details.