My views on petrol hike

With reference and reaction to the source of Chin Huat's good blog article 'An Unpopular Position on Petrol Hike - Real Income, not Relative Price' and RPK's 'Yes, let us get angry, but about the right things' here I would like to make my stand on the Fuel Hike decision by BN government.

In a long term, I would not support a policy of continuation in fuel subsidies at very low price, due to the foreseeable increasing market price in raw petroleum in near future. That means more money required to fill the hole in national budget for this subsidy, which is probably unsustainable in long term. I do feel the pinch of the fuel hike, as all my family members are also car-drivers, and the fact that many people especially in Klang Valley can hardly ‘mobile’ without private transportation. If the price rise is to remind the people to curb the excessive spending on petrol and become less dependent on government subsidies to support your transportation ‘lifestyle’, on that motion I support the government’s decision. The subsidy, if it is used properly, this could be more beneficial to the community in many other important public sectors such as health, education and transport. I agree with Chin Huat that it is definitely greener (to encourage people to use petrol less), and make all of us aware that petrol is a limited and precious natural resource. The rebate/compensation to relieve the pain of price rise is also the right way to address this issue, but i cannot see how this small amount of rebate could do much impact on the normal household.

Government is absolutely wrong to judge the public outcry towards this unpopular decision. The more they are trying to explain (even though there contains some truth within), but to many people, the more they sound like shouldering the burden to the people when they refuse to take the responsibility of the mismanagement of the economy all these whiles. If our living standard and average household income are on par with South Korean or Singaporean, we would probably just grudge and mumble few (Malaysian famous last) words when paying the petrol for the first month, and get used to it very soon. Now whatever the reason the government given to ‘educate’ people would just sound hypocrisy, certainly will not dampen their outrage now. The root cause of this problem is not about the petrol price. The lack of good transportation alternatives and poor transport system planning, relatively lower real income and purchasing power of the ordinary middle-class citizen, and the recent inflation rate, are among the factors that disappoint and depress most of Malaysians. Current salary/wage level just undermine the input, the talent and the contribution of most of the citizen to Malaysia’s economy. First, they don’t really deserve to become poorer because of rather lousy government’s economic management. In passing years, all I heard about ordinary citizens’ complaint that their effective income drops, salary cannot catch up with the inflation rate, life is more difficult here in Malaysia nowadays. It is very sad to hear this, because it’s not their fault. Maybe some people would ask, why are we paying more while we are still a net petroleum exporter country? What kind of benefits do we get out of that? How come Venezuela, a poorer country than Malaysia is, could afford to support the subsidy at a level many would never imagine to be paying for one litter of Petrol (which is currently about 17 times cheaper than Malaysia)? Although I’m not a supporter of fuel subsidy in the long run, those are still many valid questions to ask and demand good answers from the government. Have the government done enough to cater for the welfare of ordinary citizen?

Here I would like to highlight the issue of the long term non-transparency and non-accountability of the national petroleum and gas government-linked-company PETRONAS to the mass public, since their first operation. I read articles somewhere before, about the curse of countries rich in natural resources. These natural resources never really translate into the prosperity that their people dream of. Africa continent has many countries are/were rich in minerals and even the most valuable diamond, but the human greed/corruption takes all, nothing left for the general poor citizen. Worse still, people are/were suffering more for that because of the never-ending civil wars to fight for the limited resources. If you watch the movie ‘Blood Diamond’, it will inspire you to realize how important is the existence of good democratic transparent accountable institutions when comes to the management of national wealth and economic planning for future. I always wonder why not many people would care about what is happening with Petronas and where igs the money (3 trillion RM) gone or spent? All the expenditure/wastage spent on mega-white-elephant projects by Petronas– KLCC, Putrajaya, KLIA, F1 circuit, how many actually contribute the direct benefits to the people in the end? Not long ago I read about the expenditure to keep Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, paid by Petronas, is so ridiculous. This is just another showcase of wastage. Imagine if Petronas’ account is open to public scrutiny, and all the stakeholders would have the influence/say on the important decision of the company’s investment, wouldn’t the precious petroleum resource already enriched us and transformed us to an advanced nation status?

The price to pay for keeping an incompetent government is just too much. Now people are struggling to live, and bear enough of the suffering! Nevermind the price hike, people’s grouse cannot be unheard. I would support any movement to make Petronas to be accountable to people/parliament, good transport system planning and other compensations (that people deserve) to relieve people’s living pressure. Current rebate is just too little to help! Review the sudden spike of price rise is necessary. Price control / subsidy at this stage is still reasonable, judging on the massive revenue generated from Petronas because of the increasing price per oil barrel. People deserve to have a share of the benefits. A caring government must give its people ample time to slowly adapt to the new reality, step by step, while working hard to look for other alternative plans to improve the current transport situation and to control the inflation rate.