AY! CUT THE CRAP!

by Independant Daily

This is possibly the hottest discussed topic since the election and one that have caused much grievance to the people of the country.

I agree that the government cannot continue subsidizing fuel prices forever. I have no doubt that it has to increase in tandem with the global oil prices. It is not something that the government planned; it’s purely economics - supply and demand.

But the stance that the government had employed is nonetheless, idiotic. One of the reason why Malaysia remain in such pathetic state is purely because the current government, the one that had been governing for the past 50 years failed to understand a simple term known as ‘cause and effect’.

The effect of increasing the petrol prices by a whopping 37.7% overnight will be devastating. The government could have at least warned that the increase will be of such magnitude. The government should have prepare for the effect of this and provide assistance to those who planned to change their lifestyle to accommodate to this massive change. I truly believe the government should have:

1. Significantly improve the public transport so the people can prepare to switch to public transportation with immediate effect.

2. Held talks and negotiations with Tenaga and other Government link organizations to ensure that other commodities will not be affected by the increase.

3. Look into the reduction of other costs to the rakyat like income tax, automobile import duty, toll rates and others to cushion the impact of the increase.

Why the government is a failure and idiotic is they look into these things after the increase and causing everyone in the country to panic. Hawkers, transportation companies, sundry prices will all follow by at least 10-20% increase in tandem.

With all sorts of people throwing a piece of their mind into this hot discussion what has our Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi said so far? Nothing. Absolutely nothing.