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Have we forgotten world crude oil prices have dropped?

With all the political bickering amongst political parties and also by the general public, everyone has forgotten about the petrol issue.

In June, the government, in all its brilliance and intelligence, increased the price of fuel by 78 sen to RM2.70, justifying this increase to the increase of world crude oil prices to US$147 a barrel. However now, crude oil has fallen to US$62 a barrel.

Using my Standard 4 mathematics, if crude was at US$147 and the price of petrol went up to RM2.70 a litre, would it not mean that if crude oil price has dropped by half, petrol prices should be also half of RM2.70?

How can children in school comprehend their mathematics now when basic calculations by the government have gone bonkers?

I still remember my Standard 4 mathematics. The following is a flashback for those who sat for their maths examinations, especially in Standard 4.

Jawab soalan dengan mengitamkan huruf A, B, C, D. Sekiranya, Ali membeli 1 tong minyak mentah dengan harga US$147 di bandar dan menjualnya pada harga RM2.70 se-liter di kampungnya, berapakah harga jualan baru se-liter Ali sekiranya pemborong di bandar menjual se-tong minyak pada harga US$62?’

A) RM2.70

B) RM1.92

C) RM1.50

D) RM1.10

Malaysians are just too complacent in protesting the unjustified high prices of petrol. They rather just pay any price determined by the government. Remember, with each day of delay in the reduction of the price of petrol, the government reaps millions in profit due to the ‘false’ high price of petrol the rakyat is paying.

Our money is going down the drain or possibly to bail out some ailing corporation. If a Standard 4 pupil can come up with a correct answer to the above question by swiftly shading the correct answer on the answer sheet, why is the government finding it so hard to swiftly decrease the price of petrol in accordance with world prices?

After all, we have brilliant and intelligent economists in the government who are far more intelligent than a Standard 4 pupil. Otherwise, might as well employ a few Standard 4 children to give the government advice on doing calculations.

The government needs to not only bring down the price of petrol but it also has to undo the damage it caused by increasing the price of petrol sharply to RM2.70. And what damage is this? The damage I refer to is the exorbitant prices of food that every Malaysian is paying for and feeling the pinch.

The government needs to individually go through each and every essential food item and instruct the distributor or the supermarkets to bring down the price of the item. This goes against the free market economy principle or better known as the laissez-faire theory, but it is inevitable for the government to do this.

The rakyat is currently suffering due to the extreme high prices food against their low remuneration. Everyone knows that our pay packets do not correspond to the cost of living in Malaysia.

For example, I used to buy my powdered Fernleaf milk powder at RM25 last year. Today it is RM48 for the same product due to the increase in petrol price. The price increase applies to every single item across the board and everyone is feeling the pinch. Many are even starving and reducing the food intake of their children.

Eventually, Malaysia might be one of those African nations where due to extreme inflationary pressures, the people are ‘priced out’ of living in the country as the prices of food are too exorbitant and the money they earn has very little value.

Today, earning RM5,000 hardly gets a family of four by. And 90% of the working population do not even earn more than RM3,000.

The politicians do not feel what general society is feeling or going through as with their big fat pay packets, food prices do not burn a hole in their pockets. In fact, some politicians don't even talk about going to the pasar or going to Giant or Carrefour to shop - they actually go to Harrods or Selfridges to buy their groceries!

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