Thursday, June 15, 2006

Economy is not doing well - prepare for the worst

The Malaysian economy is not doing well, at least from the perspective of a layman. He is being hit from all corners by inflation, higher fuel price, high interest rate and surging utilities.

Prices of essential goods are going up, daily. So what is going down? The answer is prime minister Abdullah Badawi's popularity. The high hopes placed on him for his transformational potentials is declining.

His neo-liberal economics is heading nowhere. A vicious circle of high inflation, a drop in consumption, reduced business confidence and untimately more people will lose their jobs. Like it or not, we must pray hard for the American economy because if it were to crash, Malaysia will be hard hit and we will suffer.

Abdullah is also no longer immune from accusations of cronyism as his son Kamaluddin and son-in-law Khairy expanded their influence in the business and political arenas.

It is time for Mr Nice Guy to be bold in fulfilling his reform agenda to rescue himself or else he will be booted out, with or without, the "superficial" support of his Cabinet ministers, Barisan Nasional elected representatives and Umno.

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