Darell Leiking said a bloc vote would have highlighted the disappointment of Malaysians with the budget, particularly the unfair allocations for Sabah and Sarawak.

“They (the people) would have wanted us to speak for them about this,” Leiking, who is the party’s deputy president, told FMT.

He added that only his party, along with Muda and Pejuang, decided on the bloc vote.

“With all the criticisms levelled at the budget, the others should have stood with us on the unfairness of the budget to all.”

Detractors had previously criticised the budget as being Bumiputera-centric, while politicians from East Malaysia complained about the paltry RM5.2 billion and RM4.6 billion allocated to Sabah and Sarawak respectively.

The Penampang MP said the MoU between Pakatan Harapan and Ismail Sabri Yaakob’s government should not censor the “unheard dissent of ordinary Malaysians”.

While opposition leaders have said in the past that the pact would not prevent them from taking Putrajaya to task, he questioned if it stopped only at criticisms.

He said the unreasonable allocations set aside for Sabah and Sarawak as well as for other communities were valid grounds for the opposition to reject the budget.

“The proof is in the pudding. It looks like Ismail’s government has taken full advantage to curtail the opposition with the MoU.”