The fury over the hefty increase in petrol price since last Tuesday has yet to be doused, with a Sarawak opposition leader scoffing at the official spiel as "not only pathetic but silly".

Weighing in with comments today, State Reform Party (Star) leader Dr Patau Rubis said the government should not try to justify the increase by blaming it on rising world oil prices or the need to channel subsidy savings towards development projects.

Referring to a televised explanation by Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak last week, Patau said he should have had the courage to admit that the government has no money "after so much was spent on wasteful projects during former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad's time".

"The DPM talked about the RM4.4 billion needed for projects such as improvements to public transportation. Really? Most likely the projects to be implemented will not benefit the majority of the people, especially the poor," he said.

Patau, a former state assistant minister sacked by Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud for "reasons of party indiscipline" in the mid 1990s, said Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's government should start thinking of greater prudence in public expenditure.

"Spend within limits...look for new income and save," was his advice to the government.

Advice for PM

Patau described Najib's call to Malaysians to change their lifestyle as "laughable", suggesting that ministers should be the ones to change their lifestyles and stop approving projects that benefit their cronies.

He said government projects such as airports, highways and water supply have been made unnecessarily expensive because of "the political cost".

"I know for a fact that a company had proposed to build an airport project for at least RM200 million less than the contract sum awarded to a politically-linked company," he alleged.

"In some cases, the political cost is much as 60 percent of the project cost. If the government is transparent and sincere, it should have taken steps to eliminate or reduce the political cost of projects."

Patau said the prime minister should start making his own decisions and tell his economic advisers to resign if they are unwilling to listen to him or incapable of following his ideals of serving the public good.

"Government leaders should stop making silly statements that make them the laughing stock of the rakyat and the world," he said.

On another development, Patau offered his party as a platform for proponents of the Malaysian Dayak Congress if it is not registered in time for the state elections this year.

"I am even prepared to accommodate them if they approach me during our party elections at the end of this month," he added.