(Oct 26): Budget 2016's allocation for the Prime Minister's Department is 7.6% of total expenditure, the highest ever for the department and a sign that Datuk Seri Najib Razak is trying to consolidate his base against the opposition, DAP political education director Liew Chin Tong said today.

While there were massive cuts on education, welfare and social spending, the PM's Department will be taking a higher proportion from national coffers, from RM19 billion this year to RM20.3 billion in 2016, Liew said.

He noted that before the watershed general election of 2008, the department had only taken up around 3% to 4% of federal resources.

The 2008 general election was when the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) for the first time, lost its traditional two-thirds majority in the number of parliamentary seats.

But in 2009 after Najib became prime minister, the PM's Department began receiving allocations of nearly 7% of the annual federal budget, a figure that has continued to climb over the years until now, with a dip for two years in 2012 and 2013.

"A decade ago in 2006, the Prime Minister’s Department only took up 2.67% of the total budgeted expenditure.

"In 2007 and 2008, it occupied 3.81% and 3.4% of resources respectively.

"The Prime Minister’s Department received 6.71% in 2009, 6.37% in 2010, and 6.74% in 2011.

"For the following years, it was 5.38% (2012), 5.24% (2013), 6.23% (2014) and 6.96% (2015).

"Budget 2016 is the first time the allocation for Prime Minister’s Department hit more than 7%," Liew said in a statement.

"After the disastrous electoral outing of March 2008 and the September 16 threat of crossovers of Barisan Nasional MPs in the same year, more resources were allocated to the Prime Minister’s Department for the Prime Minister to consolidate his base within Umno and also to counter the opposition.

"It’s indeed a budget of Najib, by Najib and for Najib," the Kluang MP added.

Budget 2016 was tabled by Najib on Friday, with total expenditure for 2016 at RM267 billion, a drop of RM7 billion from 2015.

Liew said the cuts were expected due to the drop in commodity prices, which have impacted Malaysia as an oil exporter.

"One would imagine that unnecessary expenditure would be cut while the essentials would be kept. But it seems that the Najib Budget got all its priorities wrong," he said. – The Malaysian Insider