Quick, go and refuel your tank now or you’ll have to pay RM2.70 per litre tomorrow. Don’t be surprised to see long queue and shortage too! The government has just announced the fuel hike about 4 hrs ago. I bet we’re gonna see complains and rants from the poor Malaysians in the days to come. In Malaysia where the public transports are not well connected at least the system is screwed up in where I live, Penang, we rely heavily on cars and motorcycles. (there are attempts for improvement though, with the introduction of Rapid Penang) This fuel hike will translate to lower standard of living as we can afford less of other products, which means almost the whole economy will be affected! The government was short-sighted and is always one. They hardly make plans for future, instead they practice protectionism on local industries (e.g. Proton) as well as supporting heavily on a group of people who hardly contribute anything to the society.

It’s so abrupt that the announcement and decision are done within a mere 2 days. Yesterday, we saw the announcement of new oil subsidy plan. Some may think more subsidy, but you’re wrong! The revised subsidy is such that the government pay less and the motorists pay more! Who knows the hawker stall that you frequent tomorrow will tell you that their chicken rice has increased by 40.6%? While everything is going up, salary is remaining stagnant. Who is there to be blamed? I would say the wrong practice of protectionism is to blame for resulting in such a rash rectification move. Well, this BIG move may indicate the serious tone of the government in wanting a change as they are risking their support away from the majority of economic-idiots who only want subsidy and subsidy, for the greater future of the economy. As the Malaysia’s economy is gearing towards the free market way, this is when we may see increase in salary and standard of living in the long term, and more importantly improving in our exchange rate, it’s now at a freaking RM2.38 for a Singaporean dollar! I want to complain too, what’s happening with the forex department!

I thought the government promised not to increase petrol prices in accordance to rakyat’s wish? Another empty promise, again!

Rice, barley, fuel, and what’s next? The prices of ‘charges and electrons’ are next. Electricity price is scheduled for a 18% increase for home and 26% for business. Well, all the best to everyone as the prices go up. At least, the very caring and sincere government is trying to ease of our consumers’ burden by reducing the road tax and vehicle rebate of up to RM200 and RM650 respectively. Very helpful indeed, maybe it’s time to change to a smaller car! We shall wait and see what’s the reaction of the public then. Stay tune!

May Allah God bless Malaysia.

If you have an opinion, why not tell it directly to the PM, aka Pak Lah at this link-www.warkahuntukpm.com.my. It supports 4 languages, cool shit ya? The site says you will get direct response from the PM, do you believe that? Try it and tell me if Adullah does reply you. Cheers!

*A lil update: The queue for Petrol was really long. My brother has gone to the petrol station nearby and took short clip. Interestingly, but predictably, people are willing to queue hours to save themselves their some money. I thought time is more precious?

Tags: Automobile, Economics, Electricity, Exchange Rate, Fuel Hike, Government, Inflation, Malaysia, Penang, Petrol

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 4th, 2008 at 8:19 am and is filed under News, Thoughts & Opinions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.