Malaysia - National Oil Curse

Former finance minister Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah said Malaysia as the 'oil curse' in which the wealth of its land revenue is not used for the original purpose of Petronas, but the empty poppy and symbols such as the Petronas Towers. "When I founded the Petronas in 1974, I do not think that one day, I feel better if we did not find that wealth," he said.

He said the award of the oil should be used to drive the country's transition to a more educated society, and high-minded, but has become a poppy that enjoyment and empty symbols such as the Tower Petronas.Tengku Razaleigh - a former Umno vice-president who nearly beat Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad for the presidency 20 years ago - is among the founders of Petronas in the '70s.

He said Malaysia now stuck in the middle income trap, "stuck in a simple growth of low value-added production and assembly of components and can not make the leap to a knowledge-intensive economy. He said the initial purpose of the use of Malaysia's oil reserves is to help the country jumped from the economic commodity-based and low cost installation, to a more diversified economy based on high-income jobs. "we see our oil reserves as a gift of wealth that will generate money for modernization and technology," he said at the summit of young Malaysian corporate the Tower of Integrity, Kuala Lumpur today.

However, he said, billions of dollars of oil export revenue over the past three decades, has been wasted by the government. He said the country's oil revenues should be used as planned during the formation of Petronas, has become the funds expended at will by anyone who run the country, without any accountability.

The book entitled "Malaysian Maverick: Mahathir Mohamad in Turbulent Time ', launched recently, estimated about RM100 billion has been wasted in the financial scandal during the administration of Dr Mahathir's 22 years. The author, Barry Wine, a former editor of The Asian Wall Street Journal , wrote that most of the scandal, including the government's attempts to manipulate the properties and involvement of the international tin National Bank in the global currency market, in the 1980s.

However, there are some analysts that say the number is higher than that. Time quoted Malahah Daniel Lian - an economist from Morgan Stanly in Singapore, said Malaysia would have lost "up to U.S. $ 100 billion" (RM340 million) during Dr Mahathir.Petronas contributed 40 percent of the national budget over the last year but the suspension on the acquisition of oil revenue more untenable.

The Government will expand the tax base by introducing the Goods and Services Tax (GST) where all Malaysians are required to pay additional taxes in addition to income tax. Tengku Razaleigh said the country's oil wealth is being wasted and used to save companies that failed, to buy weapons, build a massive city on the site of oil palm plantations. Acquisitions, he said, was not used to eradicate poverty in poor countries, but channeled for political purposes and those that relate to politics.

He said oil revenues should be the legacy of wealth for all people and future generations, has been used to rule the 'authoritarian', undermine constitutional democracy and corrupt the entire political and business elite.