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KUALA LUMPUR: The soaring price of food and fuel
could spark widespread political unrest, Malaysia’s Prime Minister
Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said Tuesday at a summit of developing
nations.
Abdullah said the inflation
crisis had erupted as a global recession looms, spelling trouble for
the group of so-called D8 nations meeting here, and called on them
to boost food production to avert conflict.
The “D8” comprises
Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan and
Turkey and is meeting as the Group of Eight (G8) industrial powers
holds a high-profile annual summit in Japan.
“The price of oil has
skyrocketed to levels never anticipated and the price of food has
increased beyond the normal abilities to pay by the poor which form
the majority of the world’s people,” he said in an opening
speech.
“Our people in the D8 group of
countries will be among those feeling the greatest pains brought
about by the current international economic downturn,” Abdullah
said.
“There is also the danger of
the food crisis creating political unrest in many societies.”
Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and
Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani are attending
Tuesday’s gathering. The other members were represented by their
respective ministers.
Yudhoyono said the challenge of
food and energy security requires urgent attention amid soaring
prices.
“There is no quick-fix that
will sweep aside this challenge. But we must act on it at once and
in concert. To delay concerted action on this great challenge of our
time is to court disaster,” he warned.
Yudhoyono said D8 countries
should ensure food self-sufficiency to address the problem of food
security.
“The rising price of crude oil,
the scramble for alternative sources of energy, and the threat of
global warming have compounded the food crisis,” he said.
Abdullah, the new D8 chairman,
said global food prices were estimated to have risen by more than 75
percent since 2000 and urged the grouping to modernize their
agriculture sectors.
He also urged major oil producers
to adopt Saudi Arabia’s move to increase output amid calls for
greater production after the cost of crude roughly doubled over the
past year.
But he warned against giving
agricultural land over to the production of biofuels, saying that
would worsen the global food shortage and drive up prices.
--AFP
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