THESE are tough times. The global economy doesn't look good, weighed down by the dampening impact of spiralling fuel and food prices. Oil prices continue to hit daily new highs. Shares tumbled worldwide on Thursday. Consumers are feeling the pinch of rising food and fuel prices. Lurid tales of conspiracies involving a murdered Mongolian and a sexually victimised volunteer and constant speculations over behind-the-scenes cross-overs and intrigues to unseat the government have done little to assuage the collective anxiety about the charged political atmosphere and the economic woes. It didn't help matters that the local bourse ground to a halt over a technical glitch.

While no easy solutions avail themselves in this situation, there is no reason to despair or to believe the worst. To be sure, there has been a change in shopping habits and commuting behaviour as consumers shop closer to home and fewer people drive to work. But there has been no change in the car sales pattern and in the economic fundamentals. Stocks on Bursa Malaysia remain attractive buys. While there will be greater financial discipline to cut costs and reduce waste in expenditure, austerity seems to be the last thing on the agenda of the 2009 budget. It promises to be expansionary in order to pump-prime the economy and help ease the pain of rising prices.

While there is a lot of wishful thinking, no evidence of an imminent change in government has surfaced. Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi does not sit on a rocky economy that is about to collapse. Neither does he preside over a government that has a shaky hold on power. He heads a stable coalition government with a comfortable majority. This is not to say that the high political drama has not become a disruptive influence. Few imagine that the string of police reports and statutory declarations are not connected to the chain of intrigues to bring down a legitimate government. It is hardly a secret that Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim wants to achieve his lifelong ambition of becoming prime minister. He has nothing to lose by going on the attack, but it has done little to help address concerns about the economy. While the government is not doomed to fall, the country has nothing to gain from the secret deals to orchestrate defections. They have no place in a constitutional democracy. It is to be hoped that sanity will return, parliamentary politics will prevail, and we will not have to pay a heavy price for a vaulting ambition.