12 October 2019
Good morning. Am getting ready to go to Parliament for a 8 am meeting with Anwar Ibrahim’s officers. During the budget announcement yesterday, I noted down some aspects of the component spending. Component spending holds the big picture to the budget. I passed these notes to Anwar around 5 pm and then had a quick chat with him at 6 pm.
So today, I will be helping his team craft his budget speech, which he will deliver on Monday. I also have to do my own speech, which will focus mostly on macro policies. I am not sure when my budget speech slot will be. However, I will be on BFM, discussing the budget on Monday morning around 8 am.
At 9 am today in Parliament, there will be a budget briefing by MoF officials, up till 2 pm. I will then be rushing back to two community events later.
Last night, I attended the Norwegian seafood gala event at the Mandarin Oriental, straight after Parliament. I was stuck in KL gridlock traffic for 2 hours. But the food was good and I had a free dinner with my wife! I sat next to HE Piter, the Finland Ambassador and had a jolly chat on universal basic income. I also met up with the EU Ambassador Maria Castillo, Ambassador Gunn (the host), Dr Muhamad Khalid (the PM economic advisor, we last met over roti canai a year ago) and Dinesh (the man who walked into my office 5 years ago and started the INVOKE ball rolling).
I am also attaching pictures of my USJ12 community event on 9 pm Thursday night (after Parliament). I gave an update speech on reforms and economics, and answered a few questions from my constituents.