Of Barisan and Pakatan budgets

Is the shadow budget dished out by the opposition better than the one presented by the government?

But before that, do we need a shadow budget in the first place? Considering it can “never” be implemented as the people behind it are not the government of the day.

The general practice in many developed countries is for opposition parties to propose a shadow budget prior to the actual budget, which is the responsibility of the government formed by the ruling party.

That’s what Pakatan Rakyat has done. In fact, they have been doing that for some years now. Whether the ruling Barisan Nasional is happy with that or not is another matter.

Anyway a shadow budget, in general terms, refers to the opportunity cost of an activity or project to a society.

It is usually computed when the actual price is not known. But even though when the price is known, it does not reflect the real sacrifice made for that matter.

Perhaps based on such a “definition”, BN has always “pooh-poohed” the shadow budgets unveiled by PR.

Still, much to BN’s chagrin, most of the time, PR’s “budget” has often been seen by many as “good” and “attractive”. In short, most times, the shadow budgets had always been “well received”.

And BN’s response has always been the same.  Ridiculing it as something not real, a make belief and impossible to work.

However, there are economists who say shadow budgets are “realistic enough to be put into effect”.

It is a known fact in some (or should it be in most?) countries, shadow budgets are to expose the “poor” economic performance of the government of the day. Well that’s one reason we need shadow budgets.

Anyway, it will be naive of us not to say that’s what PR wants to do, that is, “to expose BN’s shortcomings”.

And it can’t be denied that shadow budgets are used by PR to show to the nation that they “got clever folks” in their midst, capable of running the country. BN would beg to differ, of course. To put it mildly.

Hence it’s naive of us also to expect the BN to “acknowledge“ or rather “praise” something prepared by its political foes – even if they know such budgets are “really good”.  Would that be like admitting their foes are bright and they are not?

To be fair, the same applies to PR when dealing with BN budgets (and other BN policies for that matter).

But aren’t there “good things” in both the BN and PR budgets? If so, wouldn’t it  be “nice” if BN  incorporated the “good things” into the national budget ? And on the part of PR, not to gloat and boast should this happen?

But all  that is nothing but wishful thinking. – October 11, 2014.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.