Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi announced a new fuel price which will be effective on Saturday (August 23).
RON97 petrol will be reduced by 15 sen to RM2.55, RON92 by 22 sen to RM2.40, while diesel reduced by eight sen to RM2.50 (per litre).
Read more on Bernama and Malaysiakini.
What is national distress?
When we are invaded.
When nature disaster strike; something huge like the Asian Tsunami.
When food crisis strike; not just temporarily shortage of sugar or cooking oil… but when people started to feel the hunger because of food shortage.
When hyperinflation… not when people are chatting in Starbucks on how expensive our fuel is, but when people can’t even afford a cup of coffee in mamak stall.
When people are started losing jobs and couldn’t find new jobs. When unemployment is largely due to lack of jobs and not because of the poor qualities (and some laziness) of our young graduates.
When the police and armed forces are becoming thugs. This is the one hanging on borderline… but set aside a few political cases, the police are still doing their job to fight crimes. Remember this, some of them are risking their lives to protect ours.
When democracy is irrelevant. Don’t tell me that our democracy is dead… we are given the rights to vote, and despite not being perfectly fair, we do have the power to determine which parties and people we want to form our government.
If Malaysia is in distress, what should we call other countries like Philippines or India? For name sake I don’t even think the likes of Philippines and India are in distress yet, let alone Malaysia?
Some Malaysians are just too pampered these days… distress? WTF.
Seems like tomorrow’s fuel-hike demo is going ahead in Kelana Jaya; hope that there won’t be any violent crash during the rally, and I hope that the protestors are fighting on the right cause and not for political reasons.
There is no point protesting against the petrol hike… the fuel subsidy was wrong and should have been gone long ago. It there is anything to complain about… it’s about corruption, poor public transportation and the government failure in improving our living standard for the past decade.
Inflation is something inevitable; what really strike Malaysians these days is the failure to improve our earning-capability since the 1997 economic crisis. With exceptions of a few professions, the salary and income levels of most jobs are not on par with inflation rate for the past decade… some sectors are actually falling behind the pre-1997 era.
What would you do with the petrol subsidy if you are the Prime Minister?
Would you choose to save billions of dollars from the subsidy to improve infrastructures (schools, hospitals, public transports etc.) or to continously using it to make Malaysians happy?
Ask me anytime, and I will tell you that we should abolish the subsidy system completely… probably not in one shot, but definitely in near future. The money could be better spent elsewhere than to pamper Malaysians with cheap petrol.
The problem with our government is always on how they would spend those extra moneys… the wastage and corruption have given them some bad reputation in recent years; and it’s understandable that lots of Malaysians no longer have faith with them.
But let’s say Anwar has took over the government, and let’s assume he is an absolutely clean and capable politician… do you think he should abolish the subsidy and use the money to build something else, or to reduce the petrol price instead?
So, same question to Anwar too, who constantly promised to reduce the petrol price. Does he believe that it’s the right thing to do to reduce the petrol price, or is it just a gimmick to gain popularity so that he can become the Prime Minister? Would he not prefer to use those money to build the future instead?
Politicians are never clean… an absolute honest man can never be a politician.
Some thoughts from other bloggers (and their readers) about the latest petrol price hike on June 5…
Kean Jin ll Undebug ll Paul Tan ll Fireangel ll Lobaksoup ll Lucia Lai ll Emily ll Beng ll Stocktube ll Foongpc ll Messyc ll Cyberpartygal ll Silflay ll Jeff Ooi ll Galvin ll Hanief ll Eddie Law ll Rocky ll Kenneth Lee ll SK Thew ll Audie ll Kuan Chong ll Malaysiacity ll Mindspring ll Zubli ll Susan Loone ll Anwar Ibrahim ll Eli Wong ll Damien Tan ll Crankshaft ll Kit Siang ll KY ll BJ
Comment is closed here, please share your thoughts at the previous post instead.
Petrol price is hiking up 78 cents to RM2.70 per litre by Wednesday midnight, while the diesel is going up RM1 to RM2.58. Seems like it’s worth being kiasu after all.
With the continous record breaking rise of crude oil price, our price hike seems inevitable. It’s a logical decision for the government to cut the subsidy… the only question that always puzzle me is how they are going to spend the extra money saved from the reduced subsidy.
So far I haven’t heard anything to improve our public transportation system, or to find alternative ways to reduce petrol consumptions in the country… nobody really knows where the money saved from the previous price hike had been used.
What Pak Lah has promised for the Sabahans on May 31… [Details]
1. Federal Development Department scrapped and replaced by Sabah State Development Office, with its operations placed directly under the state government’s supervision.
2. Formation of a cabinet committee on illegal immigrants to be chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak to discuss and solve the perennial illegal immigrants’ problem in the state.
3. RM1 billion allocation from the prime minister’s special allocation to be distributed according to development requirements in Sabah.
The media is reporting that Sabahans are getting lots of benefits, but it’s not really the case. Set aside the extra RM1bil allocation, the first two actions are not something of a bonus, it’s something that should be done years ago.
If the BN government didn’t lose their 2/3 majority in March, these issues might be overlooked once again after the election. Still, it’s better late than never.
However, don’t take their promise for granted yet. One of the biggest issues with our BN government is on implementations… they do come out with decent ideas and policies occasionally, but often failed to meet the objectives due to poor executions.
Promising is one thing… delivering the promises is another story.
Petrol stations located in border states will be barred from selling petrol and diesel to foreign-registered cars starting Friday (May 30). [Thestar]
Update - the plan has been postphoned. The northern border will start the ban on June 2 while southern border on June 9.
Update June 5 - the ban has been lifted following the new petrol scheme.
Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Datuk Shahrir Samad said the move is aimed at plugging loopholes in the current subsidy system; but the move is temporary until the ministry could come up with better management of the subsidy system.
