On a Revised Budget

Like many Malaysians, I am looking forward to today’s announcement of a Revised Budget for 2023.

Not so much for the goodies, though. Alhamdulillah God has been kind to me, and I think I’m doing okay. But I know that many people out there are suffering, and for their sakes, I hope the Budget will address their concerns.

For me, rather, this Budget will be the Manifesto that never was: a statement of intent for a government cobbled out of the shattered pieces of the Malaysian political consensus. And it will be, to me, the ultimate litmus test for a Prime Minister who has spent the past 25 years talking about Reformasi. This revised Budget will be acid test of whether those proclamations of reform were of any real substance.

Mari kita lihat, siapa yang kena.