I refer to the Malaysiakini report Fuel hike: 78 sen more to RM2.70 per litre .
In the first place, the petrol subsidy shouldn't be across the board. It should be targeted at public transport, for example, to reduce cost for commuters and making it more attractive. A petrol subsidy will only create a false sense of economic confidence and does not reflect the actual situation, irregardless of the amount subsidised.
In fact, we are currently robbing our future generations of their rights as we of the previous and current generations have depleted our natural oil resource through this subsidy.
The government should have educated the citizens on the impact of subsidised oil and a non- subsidised economy; awareness and education counts. But everyone is just so embroiled in politics and who's staying on in power as prime minister and who's getting a cut for the next government project.
How can the PM merely ask for people not to riot when they can barely survive on their meagre salaries and are struggling to cope with this huge increase?
They may or may not understand economics, but the government should have done something for the group of people with lower incomes to help them cope with the increase. How sensitive is our government to the needs of the citizens? This proves it all.
The same goes to food subsidies for oil, rice and the lot. Someday, history is going to repeat itself whereby the government will not be able to cope with food subsidies and all hell will break loose again. So how much more will the good citizens have to suffer for the many incompetent ministers that we have in our country?
Again, it is a racial issue whereby people with better qualifications cannot be appointed. I don’t see our neighbouring Malays in Singapore having any trouble with their livelihoods being the minority there. In fact, their living standards are even much better than the majority of our Malay counterparts living in urban KL, not to mention the rural villages.
They can even afford the increase in petrol prices as the world crude oil price fluctuates whereas the majority of our good citizens will be worse off now with this drastic change.
We hear of PM's 'alleged' house in Perth and a multi-million ringgit yacht while the richest unemployed son-in-law and the deputy prime minister's wife goes on shopping sprees in Europe. Same goes for the Umno Youth chief's wife.
And I dare bet that 10 out of 10 politicians in the higher echelons of the BN parties are indulging in some unnecessary luxury in one way or another. The never ending list goes on.
Whatever the decision they make that would burden the good citizen, do they care? They won’t feel a pinch. It’s a wake-up call for all to end this corrupted government.
