Lee, a member of the parliamentary special select committee for foreign affairs and international trade, said stimulus must not be deployed as a default measure but should remain a contingency tool to stabilise the economy in the event of a severe crisis.
“On the question of whether fiscal stimulus should remain on the table, the answer is an unequivocal yes – not as a reflexive habit, but as a state of readiness,” he said in a statement.
He said while current targeted measures, such as fuel subsidies, cushion initial shocks, Malaysia lacks the capacity to withstand a sharp escalation in global energy prices.
“There is currently no contingency – neither within government coffers nor in the private sector – capable of withstanding a doubling, tripling, or quadrupling of global energy costs,” he said.
He was responding to a column by economist Geoffrey Williams, who cautioned the government against introducing a new stimulus package, saying there was no clear economic justification for such measures at present.
Williams said Malaysia’s economic fundamentals remained stable, with low inflation, strong trade performance, and continued subsidies shielding consumers from fuel price volatility.
He also said that past Covid-19-era stimulus packages were marred by widespread reports of corruption, wastage, and leakages, describing EPF withdrawals as having caused long-term damage to retirement savings.
Lee said that in extreme circumstances, fiscal stimulus would serve as a macroeconomic stabiliser of last resort, but any intervention must be carefully designed to avoid the leakages and inefficiencies seen in past programmes.
He called for a structured, pre-approved stimulus framework to be debated in Parliament, with automatic triggers tied to fuel price thresholds, as well as strict oversight mechanisms and clear sunset clauses.
“We cannot wait for prices to spiral out of control before we decide how to govern. We must convene, debate, and secure a clear parliamentary mandate,” he said.
Lee acknowledged the risks of past policy failures but said avoiding stimulus altogether would leave the country unprepared for a genuine crisis.
“To abandon the option entirely would be to unilaterally disarm ourselves of the very tools required to prevent economic collapse,” he said.