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Malaysia PM rejects Anwar parliamentary
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-09-19 14:20 The opposition has pressured the government since elections in March when it deprived it of a two-thirds majority in parliament for the first time.
Abdullah has come under pressure to quit ahead of a 2010 date agreed with his party to hand over power to his deputy Najib Razak and gave the key finance ministry job to Najib on Wednesday, a day ahead of a meeting of top UMNO leaders at which some members had threatened to try to push him out. The prolonged political uncertainty has hit Malaysian assets hard, the stock market <.KLSE> was down 25 percent this year even before the latest turn in the U.S. credit crisis forced investment banking giant Lehman Bros out of business. Inflation in Malaysia has surged to close to 27-year highs and the country is now competing with other Asian nations who have enacted bold economic reforms to attract foreign investment. Anwar, a former finance minister with a strong reputation among investors for his handling of Malaysia during Asia's financial crisis in 1997, said he was a better choice than Abdullah or Najib, who have no senior finance experience. "Even (with) a Pakatan Rakyat (Anwar's coalition) government it is going to be tough under the current economic problems," he said. Anwar says that if he wins power, he will end what he says is endemic corruption, boost economic liberalisation and end a system of economic privileges for ethnic Malays that he says has failed to help people and damaged competitiveness to boot. "We think these policies would be positive for the economy and markets in the long term, but it will likely be a rough ride along the way," Cem Karacadag, economist at Credit Suisse said in a report published on Thursday. |
