Smart handling of fuel, food price hikes by government

Dear beloved Malaysians,

Last night (4 Jun 08) I went through a most unforgetable experience of joining thousands of other car owners nationwide in a queue for cheap petrol before new price hike took effect at midnite. I could not help feeling concerned that after all these years, after taking for granted the easy access to all the benefits and priviledges that Malaysia has offered, I was finally joining the ranks of millions of other people around the world who have to face the never ending crisis, be it relating to fuel rationing due to shortages, demonstrations due to fuel price hikes and food shortages, political unrest, war, natural catastrophes etc. While waiting for my petrol tank to be filled up I somehow came back to my rational senses that this fuel price hike problem is not that bad after all, Malaysia is still a peaceful and free country, the economy is booming, foreign investors relocating their investments from other neignboring countries to come to Malaysia, no food shortages, no demonstrations, no lay-offs, everything is fine and of course the petrol price hike is nothing as compared to our neighbors'. A quick mental arithmetic quickly made me realised that with the rebate of RM625 per year to be given by the government (i.e RM52 per month), I would only be spending from my salary about RM100 a month on petrol based on a monthly average usage of RM150. Now, with better economic usage of the car I can further save on fuel costs. This is even better than pre-subsidy days when on average I spent RM150 of my salary per month on petrol, without any rebates. As for the manner to disburse this rebate I would suggest that the government use the same mechanism as in the issuance of traffic summons whereby the traffic police sends the summons directly by post to the registered owner of vehicle. In this case the MOF through the RTD should send the Money Order to the vehicle's registered owner, as road tax renewals are often done by another party such as renewal agencies, other than the registered owner themselves.

Having said the benefits of this exercise I start to feel sorry for our less fortunate fellow Malaysians who have to use the public transportation, like taxis, buses, ferries, LRTs etc. Certainly, they will not get any direct rebates but will continue to pay an ever increasing price for their tickets. It is hoped that the government will continue to subsidise for this group and also not overlook for possible subsidies on other commodities such as staple food products, building materials, specialised medical care, educational books and materials etc, without which would cause serious detrimental effects on the well being of the ordinary people.

On the political note what the government has done is acceptable, however it must quickly address the ordinary peoples immediate needs. The federal government has again professionally proven itself beyond reasonable doubt to be capable of overcoming this global nagging issue of petrol price hike, without the ordinary people having to resort to time wasting and unbeneficial street demos.

Disappointedly, the PKR- led state government of Selangor has yet to even honor any of its manifestos, all of which were just utter rubbish and cheap sweeteners that unfortunately misguided the shallow minded malays and the majority of non-malays to vote for them during last elections.

The DAP-led government of Penang could not have done better either, obviously due to a serious shortage of their own talents and had to resort to talents from opposing camps to run their show. UMNO talents should never and must never cross camp to help this racist state government. It seems the state government's only significant job now is digging up mistakes of the previous government and without any new significant agenda for the development of Penang as a whole, the island state is doomed to waste. The malays should be more aware and cautious now of the real intentions of the DAP state govenment with regards to NEP. We should take serious note of DAP's anti-malay racist stand that was very clearly shown only just a few days after winning the state. The malays who supported this kind of people are real opportunists and hipocrites who once benefitted tremendously through the NEP, who received practically free education and scholarships through Sekolah Kebangsaan and IPTAs but who bite the hands that gave them hopes in life. These malays are not the type that our future malay generations can rely upon, these are the cheap malays who are willing to sacrifice their arses, and would even cross breed for the sake of friendship with their new friends, for the sake of sharing the seat of power with people who love to rear pigs near malay settlements, people who disregardly contaminate our beautiful rivers with pig shit, people who like to sleep and share pillow with pig eaters but not sharing the same dream. We should however support the malays who preach good islamic values, who advocate for the abolishment of all pig farms near malay settlements, the abolishment of unlicenced massage parlours, brothels, gambling and liquor dens in Malaysia.

Having said my piece I pray to Allah that Malaysia will continue to be strong and stable and never to lose ground on where it stands. Let Pulau Batu Putih be the first and the last. I am willing to die to defend the sovereign rights of this country as I had always been in the armed forces. Let our past stupidity that led to losing part of our sovereignity be a bitter lesson that must never be allowed to recur. God bless all of you. Hidup Malaysia. TQ.