On the evening of June 4, SMSes were flying everywhere. Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi made an announcement at 5 pm about the petrol price hike. The news caused great traffic jams all over the country. In Kuala Lumpur and Petaling Jaya, heavy rain poured down at 5 pm. The rain spoke of a doom about our political atmosphere.
It was a painful night. If the PM had already determined to increase the oil price in the first place, why could not he announce it in the morning so that the last-minute rush was unnecessary? The actions of a leader will reveal how tactful the person is.
And all the while, whenever there was an increase in petrol price, the announcement was made late in the evening as if the government wanted to catch us unawares. I hope the people in authority do not blame the people for being kiasu (afraid to lose) by queuing up in order to top up their tanks. Most of them are just ordinary people who make a living from hand to mouth. If they could save a couple of ringgit, it will be helpful to them.
Malaysia is an oil producing country, why can’t we provide cheap fuel for the people like other oil producing countries? Pakatan Rakyat’s (PR) Dr Wan Azizah rebuked the Barisan Nasional (BN) for comparing us with Singapore and Thailand. She said that we should be compared with oil producing countries like UAE (RM1.19/L), Egypt (RM1.03/L), Kuwait (RM0.67/L), Saudi Arabia (RM0.38), Nigeria (RM0.32), and Venezuela (RM0.16).
Though Malaysia will become a major importer of oil by 2014, it does not mean that we are running out of oil. We will only consume more oil by then. In fact, we still have many years of supply. Our oil is of a good quality and we export it to fetch for a better price. By 2014, our oil imports will surpass our oil exports. But Petronas, being our national oil company, will still harvest billions of ringgit each year.
When the government is unable to provide us with cheap petrol, they should review how the oil money was spent. Whenever world crude oil price soar by one US dollar, Petronas will net in millions of ringgit. The citizens regret that Petronas is not transparent in its operations. Please do not forget that Petronas owns many joint-venture companies overseas. What has happened to those incomes? Where did the relevant parties spend the money? It is not transparent at all.
Today we cannot enjoy cheap fuel and we could say that the ex-PM Dr Mahathir Mohamad cannot avoid blame as well. Look especially at the two states in East Malaysia, Sarawak and Sabah - the people over there have begun to react aggressively. All the while, the oil money given by the two states to the federal government only got them a return of 5% in royalty.
Anwar Ibrahim, the de facto leader of PR, has reaffirmed his pledge to reduce the oil price should PR have a chance to rule. How come Anwar can do this but Abdullah cannot? Because Anwar has been a minister of finance for six years. He knows how the treasury is being run.
It is not in giving cheap fuel that would bankrupt the government but rather corruption. During Mahathir’s tenure, on one hand he gave only a 5% oil royalty back to Sarawak and Sabah but on the other hand he spent tons of money building monuments – the KL Tower, the Twin Towers, the F1 Circuit, Putrajaya and other mega-projects.
Money was also used to bail out unproductive companies given to cronies. Malaysia has become an empty shell with only outward glory. That was why Malaysia was greatly hit by the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997. No, Mahathir was not the savior of Malaysia when he froze the trading of the Malaysian ringgit overseas.
He was to be answerable for the weak financial status he had created. He caused the country’s billions of dollars to be vapourised overnight. It takes 10 years for Malaysia to recover. People have many reasons to express disappointment with the BN government under Abdullah. He knew that corruption is prevalent among his people but he has no guts to axe them. Do we need to send a so-called ‘astronaut’ into space? It cost RM100 million to do so.
If we calculate the price of low-cost apartments based on RM35, 000 per unit, the money burnt up by the Russian rocket could actually provide free housing for 3,000 families. And when the deputy prime minister cum defence minister purchased submarines and fighter jets, why must he make deals through a company which had no relevance to weapons industry? Is this not evidences of cronyism? It is sad to see the taxpayers’ money being squandered like that and ending up in somebody’s pockets.
Recently, out of the five states under the rule of PR, three states namely Penang, Perak and Selangor discovered lots of land scandals and cases of fraud in business transactions by the former BN governments. In Selangor, out of the 62 projects undertaken by the former state government, the rate of failure exceeded 90%!
The former state government lost billions of ringgit as a result. No wonder why the government has not enough money for various funding and has opted to hike petrol prices. Many people in positions were ‘eating’ at the treasury. Do not forget we still have eight more states under the BN rule. The opposition cannot get to audit their accounts there. But people have many reasons to believe that they are no better than the three states mentioned above.
With the money generated by Petronas each year alone, that is, a minimum of RM80 billion per year (not counting its overseas investments), we have, in fact, enough money to feed the people comfortably, provided our leaders rule with clean hands. By the way, Malaysia could have been richer than Singapore today. We did not make it because our leaders were building towers.
Our oil money must be put to much better use and to benefit all citizens. God has a very special plan for Malaysia. He is doing a great transforming in this land. Soon there will be several new waves to hit our shores. And God will raise up Malaysia an exemplary nation.
