Budget for the environment

THE Prime Minister’s Budget 2018 speech contained a broad range of initiatives to help the rakyat cope with the increasing cost of living besides working towards achieving long-term visions like National Transformation 2050 (TN50).

The Government must certainly be commended for addressing the needs of the vulnerable in society. However, many of the issues faced by the rakyat today stem from a degraded and neglected natural environment. It is therefore disappointing that we did not hear specific allocations for protecting and enhancing our natural environment in the budget speech.