For the past month, two questions have obsessed Malaysians.
The first has been answered, viz: whether Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi will bow down to pressures from inside Umno for a quick exit as Prime Minister by announcing that he would not defend the post of Umno President in the forthcoming Umno General Assembly.
The second question, still awaiting answer, is whether the government could respond nimbly to the rapid fall in world crude prices to undo its unconscionable 41% hike in fuel prices in June which had kicked off a relentless inflationary spiral hitting a 27-year high.
When the price of petrol in Malaysia was hiked by 41% by 78 sen from RM1.92 to RM2.70 a litre, the price of world crude oil was around US$140 per barrel.
World oil prices have plummeted to a one-year low below US$78 a barrel, but the price of petrol is RM2.45 or reduced by a mere 25 sen in two reductions.
This is clearly unacceptable and the situation is not made any more palatable with the statement yesterday by the Minister for Domestic Trade and Consumers Affairs Datuk Seri Shahrir Samad of the possibility that the price of petrol reverting to the old price of RM1.92 a litre if world crude oil price continues to dip below US$72 per barrel.
What Malaysians want is immediate action.
Last night, at the DAP Rasah dinner, I had called on Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who has become the Finance Minister, to present a revised 2009 Budget when Parliament reconvenes on Monday, as the 2009 Budget presented by Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi on August 29 had been overtaken by economic events in the past six weeks – in particular the looming financial meltdown which has already precipitated a US$700 billion bailout , compared to the 1929 Great Depression and wiped out RM57 billion market capitalisation from the local bourse this week.
Najib should suspend all Umno commitments for the rest of the weekend and “burn midnight oil” to table a revised 2009 Budget in Parliament on Monday , with the centrepiece on the strategy to enable Malaysia to tide through the financial maelstrom but also incorporating new lowered pricing for petrol as world crude oil has plunged below US$78 per barrel.
This is Najib’s first challenge as Finance Minister – to demonstrate that he is on top of his new task as Finance Minister and not be accused of being a latter-day Nero “fiddling while Rome burns”.
Lim Kit Siang
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