Anwar joins campaign for Petronas to spread wealth to the poor
Malaysiakini, Aug 5, 2005
Former deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim today backed an opposition campaign for national oil firm Petronas to help combat poverty in Malaysia by sharing its bumper profits. "With poverty among rural Malays, the Indian estate sector still living in deplorable conditions and the Chinese squatters in the urban centres, why can't we with ... Petronas profits not be able to deal with the situation," he said.
Anwar, a one-time finance minister who was sacked and arrested in 1998, has been vocal on political issues this week after receiving a public apology from the then-police chief who beat him up after he was taken into detention. The opposition DAP yesterday urged Petronas to distribute some of its RM35.5 billion in profits for the 2005 fiscal year, fuelled by spiralling crude oil prices.
DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng said in a letter to Petronas president and chairman Hassan Marican that the money should go to "25 million needy Malaysians to fight inflation caused by higher fuel prices. "RM35.5 billion is so huge that even if every (one of) 25 million Malaysians received 1,000 ringgit each from Petronas, Petronas would still have more than 10 billion ringgit left to conduct business," he said.
Latest fuel hike
Malaysia last Sunday hiked the price of petrol by 6.6 percent and diesel by 18.5 percent, saving an estimated RM956 million in subsidies - funds which the government said will be directed to development projects. Petronas has said it is on track for another record profit in the current financial year to March 2006 if crude oil prices remain high. Its net profits rose 50.3 percent in the year to March to a record RM35.56 billion due to rising oil prices. Petronas is the only Malaysian company to be listed in the Fortune Global 500 list of the world's biggest firms.
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