One year on, Abdullah shares his experiences with media

One year on, Abdullah shares his experiences with media

Vijay Joshi, Associated Press/Kuala Lumpur

Malaysia's prime minister, who completed one year in office on
Sunday, says the toughest decision he had to make since taking
over was to halt major infrastructure projects of his mentor and
predecessor, Mahathir Mohamad.

In an interview with the New Sunday Times newspaper published
on Sunday, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, 64, also said his other most
difficult problem has been confronting the spiraling oil prices,
which are eating away into development resources.

All Malaysian newspapers published special supplements on
Sunday to hail the first anniversary in office of Abdullah, who
has endeared himself with Malaysians of all races with his soft-
spoken manner, a contrast to the flamboyant and paternalistic
style of Mahathir.

Although Abdullah - a devout Muslim who says his favorite
reading is the Koran - does not have the charisma of Mahathir, he
has stamped his authority over the government with some bold
decisions.

The most important of those have been putting a halt to major
infrastructure projects that Mahathir had championed, including a
US$14.5 billion (euro 11.6 billion) railway plan.

During Mahathir's time, Malaysia became known for grand
ventures such as the ultramodern Kuala Lumpur International
Airport, Putrajaya, the new administrative capital of Malaysia
and the 88-story Petronas Twin Towers, once the tallest office
building in the world which was overtaken by a skyscraper in
Taipei, Taiwan one year ago.

Asked what was the single most difficult decision he had to
take in the last one year, Abdullah said: "It was the decision to
reduce infrastructure projects and therefore deny many people,
especially the contractors, new jobs."

But the decision had to be made because the government needs
to reduce its fiscal deficit. "It would be bad if as finance
minister I did not make the painful decision that would ensure
that in the longer term, the whole country would benefit."

But that doesn't mean the government will stop all spending,
he said.

"This would lead to contractions and would be disastrous for
the economy. Being prudent is one thing but if there is no
growth, there will be another problem. That is why we are
committed to reducing the deficit but in a gradual manner," he
said.

"Of course we will continue to spend on infrastructure
projects because better infrastructure means better quality of
life for the people, and this is what we want."

The deficit was 5.3 percent of gross domestic product in 2003
and is targeted at 3.3 percent this year.

He said his other biggest worry is how to deal with the rising
cost of oil. "As you know, petrol (gasoline) subsidies are rising
at an alarming rate. Every ringgit given as subsidy takes away
from money that would be allocated for development," Abdullah
said.

Even though Malaysia is a net oil exporter, it keeps the
domestic gasoline price artificially low by subsidizing the cost.
Malaysia plans to spend some US$3.7 billion (euro 3 billion) on
such subsidies over the next 12 months.

Abdullah's one year office was also remarkable for allowing
greater democratic space, evident in the surprise release of
former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim from prison.

He was jailed on sodomy and corruption charges in 1998 after
being fired during a power struggle with Mahathir. He won an
appeal against the sodomy charge but the corruption charge
remained, which he served.

Abdullah did not speak about Anwar during the New Sunday Times
interview.

The prime minister, who disclosed that he is partial to
vanilla ice cream, joked that he is much more busy now than he
ever was in his career.

"I thought this is the time when I can just ask people to do
the work and I will just supervise from a distance but it doesn't
work that way, I suppose."