Subsidy & Opium

It looks like the price of Ron 95 is surely going up coming next month as the Prime Minister has cautioned the public on the escalating subsidy which is a big burden to the government right now in the light of steep increase in cruel oil prices. The PM opined that subsidies should be removed gradually; likening it to opium and such comment is surely going to hurt the lower income group.

If subsidy is something like opium, which is too addictive to be getting rid of once you have tasted it, then very unfortunately, only lower income groups or another word, poor people are those over dependence on this bad habit. You don’t have to go far, just look into your company as a miniature of this so-called One Malaysia, how many of them are not bothered by the increase of petrol? Off hand I can tell you, only a few of them like your GM or Senior Managers which are provided with company vehicles along with it petrol allowances and 80% or more of the rest of the employees are going to be badly affected especially those people who are exempted for income tax owing to lower income bracket.

Those earning below a thousand are surely feeling the heat as they also need transportation to go to work and also their normal activities. Not forgetting, if the petrol or diesel are not subsided, then you can see some of the companies operating public transports especially buses will close shop very fast. And as it was reported a few days ago, a few public transport companies have to stop their bus services to a few remote areas in Negeri Sembilan due to low passenger volume causing them to lose money.

Similarly, if you see on a national scale, only small amount of people are not affected by fuel price hike simply due to their high positions in both government or private sectors but most of the normal households will certainly face an upheaval should household expenditures increase in tandem with increase in fuel prices.

If the government is burdened by the subsidy reported to cost billions and billions, why are they not look into billions and billions lost in the forms of white-elephant projects, corruptions, mismanagement and so many other non-sense. Remember the Melaka Monorial which has ground to a halt merely after 2 month of it grand launch owing to a host of problem. Perwaja steel, crooked bridge, straight bridge, PKFZ, and so many countless white elephants are also burdening the tax payers to say the least.

The PM should actually liken the corruption to opium and with a more efficient, clean and well managed government, perhaps there will be more fund for the government to stabilize the prices of petroleum products and to avoid increasing inflation.