COMMENT | I truly understand how disgruntled Lim Kit Siang is given the fact that Pakatan Harapan is doing badly in elections lately and very recently PH could not even make its mind on a common logo for the Johor State Election. While I understand his frustration - why bring up Venezuela as an example?

Is Lim singing to the tune of the US and its allies who have embargoed and sanctioned Venezuela as their democratic Government does not want to play ball with the US? Why did Lim use Venezuela as a bogeyman once again just like he did back in 2019?

Lim asserts that Venezuela was one of the richest countries in the world. Venezuela’s extreme dependence on oil income both brought great riches but made the country extremely vulnerable to the collapse of oil prices (like in the 1980s).

The oil boom in the 1950s and 1960s brought significant numbers of Venezuelans from rural areas to the nation’s capital (Caracas) but such urbanization resulted in a large growth of informal settlements in Caracas.

While such oil booms do translate to better wages, the reality of pre-Chavez Venezuela was unaddressed inequality. With the decline of oil prices in the 1980s, some members of lower-income communities had to resort to eating dog food to survive.