Starting from now(June 5th), the price of petrol will increase by 78 sen, an increase of 40.6%, a jump from RM 1.92/litre to RM 2.70/litre.
Petrol increase? Use diesel! Cheaper!
Reality check: The price of diesel also go up, a hike of 63.3%, from RM 1.58/litre to RM 2.58/litre.
Ever since Sleepy Head became prime minister, petrol sudah naik 97.1% and diesel at 231%.
For easy viewing, look at this graph(From Malaysiakini):
They say, when petrol price increase, everything also increase! True enough, Tenaga Nasional Bhd will be raising electricity rates by 20% for homes, and 26% for business users.
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Years before, the government promised that public transportation will be improved to counter the inevitable-the removal of subsidy for oil.
Looking at things now, is there an improvement? Taxi's still don't use the meter, busses never come on time, the KTM is guaranteed late? Its highly unlikely that its possible to not go about without a car these days. The route our public transportation takes is too far spread out and too few to be even close to be convenient.
Instead, the government tries to silence the rakyat where vehicles below 2000cc will receive an annual rebate of RM625 , road tax for vehicles above 2,000cc will be reduced by RM200m road tax for motorbikes above 250cc will have their road tax slashed by RM 50 with a minimum rate of RM2 for road tax.
Meanwhile, diesel subsidy for fishermen and vessel owners have been fixed at RM1.43 per litre. Previously fishermen bought diesel at RM1 per litre while vessel owners paid RM1.20 per litre.
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Now for common sense, will that stop the price rise for groceries, food, etc? The price for all of our basic necessities will still increase regardless of whatever rebates that are given out!
I'm not suggesting that the government revert back to subsidizing fuel because i think that its a bad idea to begin with. The practise of subsidizing fuel does not bring any benifit because its only delaying the inevitable, crude petroleum will one day run out!
It is high time that the government with the pressure from NGO's push for an alternative to oil. Malaysia has so much natural resources but thanks to mismanagement and corruption, all has gone to waste. Make full use of that acres and acres of oil palms planted on our lands! Brazil set the trend with ethanol from sugarcane+petrol and even our neighbours in the north are following suit with biofuels. Malaysia with its Wawasan 2020, with its "stabilized economy", with its project after project is unable to do this? Modern cars do not even need modifications to run on biofuel which is cheaper and burns better...but?
Revamp the taxes! Cars should not be taxed based on capacity! Cars should be taxed on their carbon dioxide emissions. Whats the point if the car runs on a small engine but gives out more CO2 than a truck??? This will make more sense in purchasing a hybrid car. This will make more sense is buying a more frugal car to save on fuel and tax cost.
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BUT, sad to say, this will NEVER happen in the near future.
WHY?
Most of our politicians are close minded and they keep mentioning for us to change our lifestyle in facing higher prices. Change our lifestyle? Middle class become poor people? Poor people leh? Starve? And this happens while our datuks/datins use private jets and corruption thrives?
The new subsidy scheme ENCOURAGES CORRUPTION. With money being handed out to people, its hard to keep track on how much goes missing.
The biofuel will not be implemented in the near future. Why? Petronas is the main reason. Most of our politicians get oil money from Petronas. Malaysia is a net exporter of oil. With oil price rising, we should be in a more comfortable state. Yes we are-the politicians la of course-who else?
CO2 based tax emissions will not be considered. Why? We got 3 "national carmakers" what? "potong"(proton), "perodua"(actually toyota) and "naza"(rebadge maestro). You think that they will make their cars more frugal? I want to see proton come out with a hybrid car lmao!
A good example is the recent rulling of rear seatbelts being compulsory. Most cars already have them, why now only implement such a law? REason???---> our national cars. Its no secret that our Kancils, Kenaris and old Sagas have no rear seatbelts. More lengths to protect them...
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Demonstrations are gonna be a norm these few weeks, you can bet on that. But there is no point to it. It won't solve much because there is no initiative to change things in our country. Even our opposition colition is sadly, not strong enough and indecisive. If Anwar comes into power, he'll probably bring the country into bankruptcy and increase subsidies to please the masses.
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The big problem with Malaysians is that they don't see the big picture. They point fingers, save their own backside instead of trying to solve problems. The government should totally remove the subsidy for oil and invest on education!
Sad to say, a huge portion of the country needs education or we'll forever be recognised as a corrupted 3rd world country ...
