I find the current heated debate on the raising of Plus toll rates interesting. As usual, the toll hike impacts nearly everyone and everything. With the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rising to 2.2% recently, the government (namely the Cabinet) should expect opposition from all walks of life against this toll hike.

Our dear Works Minister S Samy Vellu offered help to convey the people's views to the Cabinet. However, he emerged a day later blaming the Cabinet (of which he is part) and the government (of which he is also part) for its approval of the toll hike.

He went further to criticise MPs against the hike saying they were using it as an opportunity to gain political mileage.

Well, as a regular user of the Plus highway, I am keen to find out who is responsible for this toll hike. Samy attributed the increase to the agreement Plus had signed with the government a few years back (when he was already the works minister).

I went through some past news report and flipped through the Plus 2003 Annual Report and was quite surprised to find out that UEM, Khazanah, EPF and Socso collectively own more than 80 percent in Plus (I stand corrected as these figures were obtained from 2003 data).

As far as everyone knows, the government basically controls all of the above mentioned entities and most of their directors are nominated by the government. Hence, the government directly (via Khazanah) and indirectly (via the rest) holds a controlling stake in Plus.

So, if the real problem is the agreement signed between Plus and the government, why doesn't the government vote to change this agreement that is eating away the nation's wealth? If the government truly stands with the rakyat , why is it insisting on collecting additional taxes just to be channeled back into the treasury via corporate taxes?

We had an authoritative ruler for the past 22 years when almost all decisions made by a few men. They controlled basically all the government-linked companies.

Please don't tell me these 'divine powers' suddenly disappeared and that Plus is now mighty enough to have its own say regarding infrastructure that was built to serve public interest.

Cut me some slack, works minister.