By Maha Balakrishnan
As in other parliamentary systems, the annual budget process in the Dewan Rakyat is the most
significant event in the parliamentary calendar, as it offers lawmakers their most powerful
platform to evaluate and influence public expenditure targets and the direction of the
government’s policy priorities for the upcoming fiscal year.
In Malaysia, the Federal Constitution underpins Parliament’s decisive authority to review
and approve the annual budget, in essence conferring a veto power on the Dewan Rakyat to
approve or deny the government access to operational and development funds. However, this
constitutional authority has yet to be fully actualised within the rules, procedures and practice
of the House, thereby hampering the ability of lawmakers to fully tap into their constitutional
powers. This is primarily why the Dewan Rakyat’s budget review process can often seem
perfunctory, with a lack of depth and detail in budget policy debates and the scrutiny of the
Ordinary and Development Estimates.
On balance, a more rigorous legislative scrutiny process of the annual budget will benefit both
the government and members of parliament, while serving the best interests of the public.
However, any expansion of the Dewan Rakyat’s scope over the budget process is complicated
by the political significance attached to passing the budget in Westminster-model parliaments
like Malaysia. Budget legislation is seen as a test of a parliament’s confidence in the executive.
In addition, the government’s ‘financial initiative’ to channel public funds to achieve its policy
priorities is considered the governing parties’ privilege and responsibility in winning the mandate of the electorate.
These political pre-conditions must be respected and taken into account when
designing a more substantive and effective role for the Dewan Rakyat in the budget process.
The solutions proposed in this paper (and adopted in many other Westminster-model
parliaments) navigate these political considerations by integrating select committee scrutiny
of the annual budget into the pre-budget and budget approval (ex ante) stages of the budget
cycle.
These solutions protect executive legitimacy and its financial initiative, while allowing MPs
to harness the powers and mandate of select committees for more detailed, participatory and
evidence-based review of the annual budget.