Negative impacts from the present state of emergency could have been addressed by a government with expertise to manage the economy, economist Muhammed Abdul Khalid said today.

Under the current Perikatan Nasional government, Muhammed said there were many "wasted opportunities" to introduce much-needed reforms in various areas.

"Good times are bad for reforms. Nobody wants to do reforms during good times.

"But in bad times, that is the time to do comprehensive and brutal kind of reforms," Muhammed (above) said during a press conference in Kuala Lumpur with the Tolak Darurat committee.

The discussion on the impacts of emergency on the economy also featured economists Nungsari Ahmad Radhi and Jomo Kwame Sundaram.