Sri Lanka went bankrupt not because of 'a day or two' of corruption
Corruption is like diabetes not heart disease, it 'explodes' after a while
SHAH ALAM - Sri Lanka's economic and administration system did not fail because of a day or two of corruption, said an economist.
Prof Nungsari Ahmad Radhi said it started decades ago.
Comparing corruption to diabetes, Nungsari added that the damage to Sri Lanka took place slowly till it saw a total collapse of the country.
"Corruption is more like diabetes, not like a heart attack. Diabetes takes a long time before it 'explodes'," he said in a special 360 program posted live on the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission's (MACC) Facebook.
Large-scale corruption in Sri Lanka saw the country failing to pay its debts.
"The Sri Lankan government went bankrupt because the government was in debt and could not afford to repay debts. It’s the same if we have debts in our country, then we will be considered bankrupt by the bank.
"A government can go into bankruptcy as seen in Sri Lanka," he said.
Due to that, he said Malaysia must be vigilant and reject corruption.
"If we look at Malaysia, we can say we are not like Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka has no produce, no oil, gas, commodities that can be exported and no manufacturing. We are not like that.
"But we have to realise that one of the inefficiencies in the implementation of fiscal policy is that if we look at 22 years of budget tabled in the Dewan Rakyat, the expenditure exceeds revenue, it means we are in overdraft for 22 years," he said.
Citing the 2008 financial crisis, Nungsari said the private sector had no money and the government had to accommodate them. "We had to look into debt management because if the implementation of fiscal policy was inefficient, then the government debt will continue to a certain level, "he said.
Sri Lanka is currently facing its worst financial crisis since its independence in 1948.
The crisis was exacerbated when the Sri Lankan government announced Colombo's failure to pay off its US $ 51 billion (RM215.7 billion) foreign debt, signaling that the South Asian country had gone bankrupt.
Sri Lanka has about US$ 6 billion (RM25.37 billion) in external debt to pay for this year, while the country's disposable reserves have declined to a record low in history at just US$150 million (RM634.2 million).
