Kuala Lampur, April 4 -- Sri Lanka's renewed struggle to avoid another economic breakdown should serve as a warning to Malaysia and the wider Asean region.

Colombo has had to ration fuel, raise pump prices by roughly a third, and increase electricity tariffs by as much as 40 percent as the prolonged Middle East war drives up energy costs and compounds earlier domestic shocks, including the impact of a deadly cyclone late last year. These are not abstract policy adjustments.

They are emergency measures taken by a state that still remembers, all too painfully, the consequences of systemic economic collapse.

The lesson for Asean is not to panic, but neither is it to drift into complacency. Panic is politically contagious.

Once it takes h...