Parti Keadilan Rakyat (Keadilan) today criticised political scientist Dr Chandra Muzaffar (photo) over his reaction to an International Monetary Fund (IMF) official's remarks reported in a local Malay daily saying that it was more of a "political propaganda than a proper economic analysis".

Keadilan information chief Rustam A Sani said in a statement that the party was concerned with the ignorance shown in the reactions to IMF director Horst Kohler's statement on Thursday, especially Chandra's remarks.

Chandra was quoted as saying that jailed ex-deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim's move to follow IMF's advice would have done more damage, and that Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad was right to impose currency controls during the 1997 crisis.

Passing comment

Chandra, a former Keadilan deputy president, was also reported to have said that Anwar could have a political agenda to follow the IMF or just naive about the economy, and referring to Mahathir as the saviour who resolved the financial crisis.

Rustam said Kohler's statement praising Mahathir for taking the right step was not the IMF official report, nor was it serious or indepth.

"It is merely a passing comment of a guest invited by Mahathir to speak on the economic development of a country he is visiting for the first time in his life."

He said Malaysia's economic recovery had nothing to do with whether Mahathir's currency controls was the right or wrong move because the global economic had recovered post-1997 with western investors slowly returning to the region.

"Malaysia's recovery was not because we rejected the IMF approach. Countries that had accepted the approach at that time, such as Indonesia and Thailand, are also experiencing recovery, in fact, more rapid than us."

What policy error?

Rustam said Mahathir rejected the IMF approach not because of the policy but because he was unwilling to accept conditions that required greater transparency, particularly in banking transactions, and clean from elements of cronyism and nepotism.

"As we can see in countries that accepted the IMF assistance, many banks and big companies were forced to shut down operations."

He said Keadilan did not understand what policy error by Anwar that Chandra, who was also Anwar's former aide, is talking about when reacting to Kohler's statement.