KUALA LUMPUR: Information Minister Datuk Shabery Cheek and Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim took on each other in a live-over television debate on the fuel price increases tonight and afterwards proclaimed that it had been a good clash of words.

After the hour-long debate, based on the opposition party’s election pledge “Today we form the government, tomorrow we reduce fuel prices,” Shabery said he left it to the leadership to evaluate his performance.

Anwar said it was not a matter of winning or losing but the debate was a “good forum and healthy discourse towards addressing the propaganda against the PKR”.

The debate, telecast live over Bernama TV, TV9 and Astro Awani, was held at the Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka before 200 guests comprising political party members and the media.

It was moderated by Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka chairman Johan Jaafar and two other panellists – current affairs weekly Siasah editor Zulkifli Sulong and Universiti Utara Malaysia vice-chancellor Nordin Kardi.

Anwar, in his opening remarks, said if the Pakatan Rakyat were to form the government tomorrow, it would bring down the petrol price by 50sen a litre.

He mentioned various measures, including reducing the standby capacity of Tenaga Nasional Berhad from the current 40% to 20%, to find the funds.

He said the subsidy to the Independent Power Producers (IPPs) had caused national oil company Petronas and Tenaga losses.

Shabery on the other hand reiterated the government’s stand by repeating earlier arguments that the government needed to reduce the subsidies for petrol which were being enjoyed by the rich and their big cars, instead of being channelled to development projects for the poor.

He added that the subsidies benefit foreign oil companies based in Malaysia instead of Malaysians.

Shabery said countries like Venezuela and Iran which had low oil prices had high inflation rates, adding however that some countries like Norway had succeeded in building strong economies despite high oil prices.

He also accused Anwar of taking advantage of the hardship of people for his own interest- now, and during his student days in the 1970’s.

Shabery also took potshots at Anwar, saying he had supported the very policies on the IPPs that he is opposing now, when he (Anwar) was deputy prime minister.

He added that Anwar had been for the International Monetary Funds (IMFs) measures to be implemented in the country during the last financial crisis in 1998.

Anwar responded saying that one cannot compare Norway to Malaysia as that country’s per capita income was 10 times that of Malaysia’s.

He said while Iran and Venezuela had high inflation rates but low petrol prices, Malaysians have to put up with high inflation rate and high oil prices.

He said instead of using the subsidy savings to bail out ailing companies and provide incentives for large companies to come to the country, it should be used for the poor.

He added that the lack of proper management had caused a lot of leakages to the government funds.

Anwar said the accusation that he supported detrimental IMF measures for the economy during the 1998 financial crisis was a slander that had been propagated over the years.

“And I am willing to debate on this with world economists,” he said.

In closing, Anwar said something had to be done soon or the economy would bleed severely and that Pakatan Rakyat would continue to push for more measures to revive the economy.

Shabery meanwhile said the government was not into populist sentiments but was looking at the long-term effects of the rising oil prices to the economy.

Earlier, a ruckus broke out outside the Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (DBP) when four press photographers were assaulted by DBP security personnel.

The cameramen from theSun, Berita Harian, Channel News Asia and theEdge Financial Daily were assaulted by the men as they were trying to leave the Press area upstairs of the hall to go to the lobby below to get pictures of both Shabery and Anwar.

They were prevented from leaving by the personnel who held them back. When they resisted, they were kicked.

The media were later allowed to go downstairs and police took control of  the situation by asking everyone to disperse from the DBP grounds.

The Pressmen lodged a report at the Dang Wangi district police headquarters later tonight.