Opposition stalwart Lim Kit Siang today warned that Umno may not be very supportive of Minister in the Prime Minister's Department and Performance Management and Delivery Unit (Pemandu) chief executive Idris Jala and his subsidy-cutting measures.

The DAP advisor said Prime Minister Najib Razak's reluctance to openly support Idris' "apocalyptic" warning of Malaysia's possible bankruptcy is a sign of a lack of politica l will to address the country's deteriorating finances.

Lim decried Najib's statement last nigh t that the figures quoted by Idris were merely based on Pemandu's studies and that there is no firm decision by the government.

"In less than 12 hours of Idris' apocalyptic speech that Malaysia can go bankrupt by 2019 if the government fails to cut its burgeoning subsidy bills, the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, played down and distanced himself from Idris' warning.

"One can envisage that Idris would not have been discussed in very flattering terms at the Umno Supreme Council meeting."

dap 2010 budget rocket cafe 071009 lim kit siang 01 Najib's qualification instead of endorsement of Idris' warning that Malaysia could become the next Greece and go bankrupt unless it saves RM103 billion in next five years to reduce the nation's huge debt is proof of the Najib administration's lack of will to address the subsidy syndrome, Lim ( left ) said in his blog.

Lim also pointed out that Idris was only dealing with the symptoms and not the root causes of Malaysia's current economic crisis.

"Although Idris said the government would focus on big ticket items such as fuel, electricity and toll to achieve the savings, he failed to focus on the biggest ticket items - corruption, mismanagement, extravagance and lack and accountability.

"What credibility has the government to talk about slashing subsidies affecting the rakyat when it has nothing to show to end the rampant and worsening state of corruption, the gross abuses of power and public funds like indiscriminate issuing of APs and various forms of 'piratisation' in the name of privatization?," he said.

Lim continued his assault on the government's credibility, saying that the timing of the proposed subsidy reforms could not have been worse with the announcement yesterday of net losses of RM309 million by GLC Sime Darby in its third quarter results .

He said the mystery hanging over the country's second-largest public listed company's RM1.7 billion cost overruns in the Bakun dam project hardly helps government efforts to convince the public of the need to cut subsidies.

"With more questions than answers as to how the global conglomerate changed the meaning of "GLC" from Government-Linked Company to Government Losing-Concern with its billion-ringgit losses, raising grave questions about accountability, transparency and integrity, this is not the best backdrop to convince Malaysians that the government has the political will to set a good example to slash expenditures to save the country from the fate that befell Greece," he said.

Subsidy cuts burden low-income group