Malaysian Opposition calls for budget overhaul:

Anwar Calls Government to work with the Opposition

MALAYSIA: Malaysia’s opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim Monday called on the government to review its big-spending 2009 budget in light of the global economic crisis.

The former Finance Minister, who is trying to unseat the coalition led by Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, rubbished the premier’s positive outlook on the economy.

“My concern is they are still in a state of denial. A responsible position would be to say, okay, we are having this crisis, it may come to recession, it may not come to recession, but we have to handle it,” he said.

“You can’t handle it with a budget which is one and a half months old and which has contradicted all the figures.”

In August Abdullah unveiled a budget packed with tax cuts and sweeteners in a bid to bolster support for the beleaguered coalition and spur growth in the face of the looming slowdown.

Anwar said any responsible government would overhaul the budget and make new plans based on the changed global environment, and called on the government to work with the opposition.

As neighbouring Singapore slipped into a technical recession, Abdullah said Malaysia’s fundamentals were strong and that it would be able to ride out the crisis. “We have very strong reserves, our surplus is still strong, our domestic savings are also very high and our currency is also stable and not subject to fluctuation,” he told reporters Monday.

“I’m not saying it’s going to be easy, it’s going to be tough.

“But if we stand together... I think we should be able to go through the storm,” he said. “A little bit of damage but we’ll be okay.”

The government has stuck to its forecast of 5.7 percent economic growth this year and 5.4 percent in 2009 but others are more pessimistic and leading investment bank CIMB has said growth would slow to 3 percent in 2009.

Anwar, who has said he has enough support from defecting lawmakers to topple the government, on Monday declined to discuss his leadership ambitions and said that for now the opposition would focus on the budget.

Kuala Lumpur, Monday, AFP