KL must wake up to trade collapse, not routine recession, warns Ku Li

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 7 — Former Trade Minister Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah yesterday warned leaders that they must hurry to mitigate the dire economic crisis with as much haste as they went through to topple the Perak government.

Writing in his now popular razaleigh.com weblog, the Gua Musang MP said Malaysia is not even at the alert level that the rest of the world was last year, noting that US President Barack Obama has chided Congress for its slowness in passing a stimulus Bill while China, Australia and even Singapore are acting decisively to cushion a recession they cannot avoid.

"One of the world's top 20 trading nations officially thinks it merely faces a routine slowdown in the midst of a collapse in world trade," Tengku Razaleigh wrote in reply to one of the comments in his weblog.

Pointing out that he, industry leaders and economic bloggers have been calling on the leadership to take note of the historic dimensions of the crisis, the Kelantan prince said the government should come clean about the recession and its plans with the already ballooning budget-deficit in face of low growth estimates.

He said economic numbers translate into jobs, livelihoods, opportunities, food on the table and poor economic management would have very real consequences in the lives of Malaysians.

"The public and the business and investment community must surely get a feeling of unreality around this administration.

"It's as if the fire alarm has been ringing, the neighbourhood, in fact the whole town, is on fire and the firemen are holed up playing games with each other. Or starting other fires," the Gua Musang MP wrote in a sarcastic tone.

Finance Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has announced the government will table a mini-Budget in face of the economic crisis. The deputy prime minister tabled a RM7 billion stimulus package last November but officials are concerned that the money has yet to be spent.

Former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has proposed an additional RM28 billion stimulus package in wake of comments by finance officials who forecast the next package is worth RM10 billion. Malaysia's gross domestic product grew at a snail's pace of one per cent in 2008's fourth quarter.