I guess most of you good people out there are still in a state of shock from the recent price hike and are reeling from the after effects. The realisation of what is in store for them will become a reality in the next few days. The average middle class Malaysian will no more be in that category. Some time ago in the year 2006, on the 28th February 2006 the prices were hiked without a hint that it would happen. They did it covertly, deliberately and slyly. So what was the PM’s excuse, we can longer subsidise the high cost, well that some of us can accept. Do not include me. On TV 3, he said we must change our life styles. My advise to the PM, is get the cronies in your cabinet and you hangers on from your family to change their life style as they are the cause of this hike. Gross incompetence and mismanagement of Government linked companies have brought us to this sorry state. From a personal viewpoint they, meaning UMNO need the money to finance their cronies projests so as to cling on to power. Plundering the resources of our country by the Robber Barons who wish to plunder the nation by silencing the masses and using the ideological state apparatuses at their disposal. Well for those dumb twits in the MIC+MCA=UMNO who voted for the Barisan Nasional, please do not whine about the increase in fuel. You demanded that increase by voting in these Robber Barons. The rest of us who did not, have the inalienable right to whine, curse, swear and demonstrate against this gross mismanagement of our country's resources.  Najib obviously bullshits in the Star on the 31st May 2008, by saying it's all speculation.
Of couse there will be the normal everyday spins to continue deceiving the people, for instance,“Bear the pain, short-term. In the long term, it’s good for the nation,” a typical imagined reaction from any top professional decision-maker.
It is easy for the highly paid - PhD economists, self-claimed “think tank” experts and ivory-towered academicians who in typical fashionable “high-flown” rhetorical arguments taking the side of the government’s decision on the price hike. But these can be “thinking tanks with out-hearts.” The harsh and cruel socio-economic realities of the sudden hike will further impoverish the low and middle income Malaysian families and lower their standard of living.
The economic realities can be hard-hitting and are indeed real - the 'pain' is beyond intellectual and partisan arguments. Overnight, millions of Malaysian households are “tsunami-ed” into the 'new' poor middle class. In real life, a household income of RM3,900 (husband RM2,500 and his spouse, RM1,400) has been impoverished by a single policy with very serious consequences on their standard of living. Malaysiakini
The Opposition Leader, Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail said this “As a raw oil producing nation, Malaysia should be compared with other oil exporters such as UAE (RM1.19 per litre), Egypt (RM1.03 per litre), Kuwait (RM0.67 per litre), Saudi Arabia (RM0.38 per litre), Nigeria (RM0.32 per litre) and Venezuala (RM0.16 per litre),” she argued. “To compare prices with Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia is obviously flawed".
The many bailouts in addition to the past scandals have yet to see anyone of the UMNO (BN) politicians being made accountable for. For intance the ballooning of the cost of the PKFZ from RM1.1 billion to RM4.6 billion . The purchase of 6 Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPV) where relevant documents have been destroyed and the shocking increase of 38% or RM 1.85 billion in the contract value from RM 4.9 billion to RM 6.75 billion and waiver RM 214 million in penalties for late delivery. Read more here.....More of UMNO's sins : UMNO's sins when the junta of the Mahathir dynasty was ruling ........... 17. Grant of RM440 million given to Libyan-American Sadeq Mustaffa to set up InventQjaya Sdn Bhd - Malaysia & Malaysians did not benefit ? 18. Privatising profitable state-owned enterprises like Telekom Malaysia, Tenaga Nasional and Pos Malaysia 19. RM 1.4 billion soft loan to Indah Water - good money after bad.  20. Rescue of First Son, Mirzan's, Konsortium Perkapalan Berhad using RM1.7 billion from Petronas? 21. Forcing Malaysian International Shipping Company (MISC) to acquire the assets of Konsortium Perkapalan Nasional? 22. Selling Malaysian Airlines System without an open tender to Tajuddin Ramli. 23. Bailing out Tajuddin by paying RM8 per share when the shares were trading at only RM3.60 in the open market. 24. Bailing out Time Dotcom Bhd - Amount RM5 billion debt. Uing RM904 million from Kumpulan Wang Amanah Pencen to buy up 273.9 million unwanted Time Dotcom shares incurring an instant loss of RM280 million. 25. Forced EPF to buy 81.6 million unsubscribed public portion of the initial public offering (IPO) of Time Dotcom Bhd at RM3.30 per share when the shares were trading at only between RM1.95 and RM2.10 and in the process incurring an instant loss of RM100 million? 26. Bailing out the LRT operators Projek Usahasama Transit Ringan Automatik Sdn Bhd (Putra) which belonged to Renong and Sistem Transit Aliran Ringan Sdn Bhd (Star) using almost RM600 million from EPF which still resulted in EPF having to write off RM135 million with a share loss of RM96 million? 27. Awarding North South Expressway concession to UEM (who then formed Plus) and then provide them with a loan of RM1.6 billion which was half of the tender price of RM3.2 billion. 28. Awarding Ekran Bhd contract to build the Bakun Hydroelectric Dam in Sarawak and bailing them out - RM200million for 'work done'. 29. UMNO puppets in Maminco cornering the London tin market which promptly resulted in Maminco losing RM150 million. 30. Over speculation in the foreign exchange markets which ultimately cost Bank Negara almost RM9.3 billion in losses? 31. Perwaja Steel 32. Grossly unfair and unjustified terms to TNB in purchasing energy from independent power producers. 33. Privatising the government medical stores to Southern Task Sdn Bhd which then hiked up the prices of medicines. There are more questions than answers : 1) If it is said that the increase is due to world market price, would the local oil price drop when the world market price drops? What is the working basis? If Malaysia is only following the 'increase' method, how could the 'world market price justification' be plausible? 2) Will the Petronas accounts for the past 30 years (audited) made public so that the rakyat knows where the income derived from selling petrol have gone to? 3) Where will the removed government’s fuel subsidy go to? Funding of Space programmes? Funding of Monsoon Cup? Funding of Brickendonbury-like Sports Center? 4) If it is said that the people should reduce their spending and change their lifestyle, the most direct solution to this problem would be using the public transportation system. However, the government forgot one thing : Why did citizens buy cars? Minus off the reason that some actually purchase cars because they are rich, the other common answer is simple : because the public transportation system is deplorable. I believe most lower-middle income people will provide this as an answer. The question is : What is Pak Lah and government's plan to improve the public transportation system so that Malaysians can rely less on expensive fuel via personal cars? The above are the many sins of the current government, it would be good to have this government changed come 16th Septemeber 2008 for the good of all Malaysians. |
