IT is both saddening and depressing to note the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) admission that it had erred in its handling of the bailout of the Greek economy (StarBizWeek, June 8, 2013). The results of its mishandling is that incomes have plunged by about a third since the debt crisis erupted in 2009, the unemployment rate is at 27% and nearly 60% of youths are unemployed. Surely, one would have thought that the well-schooled officials, bureaucrats and research experts at the IMF would have much more intelligence than to suggest and insist on such obviously ill-thought-out recommendations and proposals. Who takes responsibility for such disastrous consequences pursuant to the IMF's intervention?
Does this scenario have any bearing on economically stable Malaysia? One only has to cast one's mind to the Asian financial crisis of 1998 which had engulfed in this part of the world for the answer. How many of those who accuse the Government today of economic mismanagement appreciate that Malaysia was one of the minorities that did not seek an IMF/World Bank bailout? Our neighbours Thailand, Indonesia and several others had sought such help. One of the reasons for Malaysia not doing so was the ill-conceived and incorrect economic measures that had to be implemented on our domestic economy as a precondition for monetary aid. That would have brought us to a situation not unlike Greece, and possibly worse, given our racial composition.