COMMENT | Available data indicate that a massive, unsustainable financial burden is looming large if oil prices continue to be uncertain and the government shields the country from the vagaries of market forces.

They cannot afford it but are being stymied by the desperate, perhaps futile, need not to offend public opinion in the next polls, which pundits predict to be soon.

That puts off badly needed subsidy reform to buttress revenues in the face of crisis.

A major problem with fuel subsidies is the lack of proper, well-presented data. It’s still instructive to look at available data and draw valid conclusions.

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said something significant on June 7, and this was reported on the...