The government should postpone the presentation of the 2002 budget until revisions are made to the figures and forecasts in the proposed budget which "overlooked the impact of the Sept 11 attacks in the United States", said an opposition leader today.

DAP national chairperson Lim Kit Siang said such a revision is important as the budget was prepared before the terrorist attacks last month which saw the loss of 6,600 lives.

Lim said the expected economic growth announced by Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad recently was also an inaccurate indicator to be used for the official forecasts in this Friday's budget presentation.

"The estimated growth was based on pre-attacks statistics and it will be unsatisfactory for it to be used unaltered for the budget," said the opposition leader in a statement.

On Sept 25, Mahathir who is also the finance minister said the economic growth this year was expected to be around 1.0 to 2.0 percent, in contrast to the previous official forecasts of seven percent last October and five to six percent in March.

The announcement came with the launch of a stimulus package totaling RM4.3 billion, six months after the first such package of RM3 billion was dished out to offset the effect of a global economic slowdown.

The premier had said the focus of the package was to generate economic activities and ensure a fair and wide distribution of benefits to a large segment of the population, including an increased number of bumiputra contractors and those dependent on welfare assistance.

To achieve the purpose, the premier announced various measures costing RM2.5 billion and said other strategies in the package would be made public during the budget presentation on Oct 19.

Bad news

However, Lim said that a postponement was necessary with the latest announcement by the US Federal Reserves that the country's industrial production fell for a 12th straight month in Sept, its longest losing streak since World War II.

The last time such an unbroken series of declines extended from Nov 1944 to Oct 1945, he added.

Recently, it was reported that American businesses cut 200,000 jobs last month the largest layoffs in the country in more than a decade.

Lim also noted that the US factory output which makes up the largest portion of industrial production also fell by 1.1 percent last month.

"These are bad news for Malaysia as the US is our largest trading partner," he said.

Widespread expectation that there would be an early US economic recovery from the last quarter of last year had been "dashed by a protracted and severe economic slowdown and most recently the Sept 11 attacks", he said.

US is currently Malaysia's largest export market and foreign investor, with an annual trade amounting to RM144 billion (US$38 billion).

K-economy masterplan

Lim said the two-week postponement of the budget presentation will also give time to the government to make public the knowledge-economy masterplan for a national debate.

He claimed the government has yet to announce its K-economy masterplan to the nation despite its promise to do so since two years ago.

"The K-economy masterplan remains a national mystery as the process of consultation and brainstorming has been an elitist process without involving people from different backgrounds," he said.

"One calendar year is equated to five Internet years, and we have lost ten Internet years to formulate the masterplan, which is tantamount to dragging down the national aspirations for Malaysia to join the other information technology superpowers," added Lim.