Dr M who oversaw Malaysia's worst crisis says Covid-19 is worse

CORONAVIRUS | Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who as premier oversaw Malaysia's worst economic crisis in 1997, said the ongoing Covid-19 situation is worse than what he had to deal with during that time.

"This is worse than the financial crisis," Mahathir (above) said in an interview with Bloomberg TV.

"This is really a terrible blow to the economies of the whole world," he added.

In the face of the Asian financial crisis in 1997, Mahathir imposed strict capital controls which were heavily criticised by the international community.

However, more than a decade later, the International Monetary Fund reversed its position and admitted that the measures had helped Malaysia.

The period saw several banks on the verge of collapse and was forced into a merger.

It was not only a period of economic upheaval but also political upheaval, which saw the fall of the Indonesian government.

Mahathir, 94, said investor confidence was poor.

"Investor confidence is very low not only for Malaysia, it's for the whole world.

"Because if you invest and you cannot sell, you don't invest," he said.

Mahathir was the fourth prime minister from 1981 to 2003 and the seventh prime minister from 2018 to 2020.

The outbreak of Covid-19, beginning in Wuhan, China in January, has severely impacted the global economy as several countries go into lockdown in a bid to contain the virus which has spread across the globe.

Yesterday, Malaysia's total Covid-19 cases almost doubled, increasing by 190 cases in a day, bringing the total to 428.

Preliminary investigations showed most of the cases are linked to a religious gathering at Sri Petaling Mosque.

Some 16,000 people attended the gathering from Feb 27 to March 1, of which 14,500 are Malaysians from across the country.

Globally, 167,392 people have been infected to date with 6,503 deaths.

China is the worst-hit country, with 80,860 cases and 3,212 deaths. However, it is now only seeing low double-digit cases after two months of unprecedented measures including lockdowns.

But the virus has spread to other parts of the world and Italy is now the worst-hit country in Europe.

Italy has reported 24,747 cases to date with 1,809 deaths, with 368 reported in the last 24 hours. - Mkini