I'm sure by now most of you are beginning to suffer from the effect of the fuel price increase. yes, the moment we started our engines this morning, a whole new world of pain is inflicted on us. I dont know many of you spent a lot of time trying to fill up your tanks yesterday, but luckily for me, i already fuelled up in the morning. however, i was not spared from the the mad rush to the gas stations yesterday night.
i went home at about 7.30 last night and it took me more than 1.5 hours to reach home. the mad rush for petrol caused massive jams everywhere in KL. The federal highway was jammed. then the 50 cents toll before cheras was also jammed Then as far as my eyes could see, even the cars cant move out of the toll boths after paying because it was jammed after it as well. OK, so that sucked. Later when i was driving into my housing area, the only access road into Sg. Long, there was also a jam as the queues for the petrol station spilled onto the main road. So yes, it kinda sucked to be on the road yesterday.
OK. I'm now surfing on The Star's website looking at the news headlines. There are certain articles which caught my attention. The one which i will comment on is of course the article on the fuel price increase, which can be found here. below are excerpts from the article and my comments.
"Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said the new prices were still at a 30-sen per litre discount from market prices.
In other words, if the market price is RM3 per litre, Malaysians will be charged RM2.70 at the pump. He said the price would be adjusted monthly based on the global oil price."
- This fixed subsidy system makes sense. Cant argue about it.
“Malaysians still pay lower than the market prices as far as petrol is concerned,” he told a packed press conference when announcing the restructuring of the subsidy package.
Abdullah said that although the restructuring would result in consumers having to pay more, prices were still lower compared with Singapore and Thailand."
- Yes but these countries that pay more are countries which dont produce oil. Look at this article in Malaysia Today, which shows us this graph: ... DOH!! I cant find the article anymore. oh well, what was mentioned that the price in petrol for oil producing countries were generally under RM1.00 per litre. Can you imagine that!?!
***EDIT**** Ok i found the article here. Enjoy!!!
“Our effort is certainly not an attempt to be popular but we try our best to help the people. We cannot satisfy everyone,” he said.
Abdullah said demand for public transport would go up with the rise in fuel prices and the Government was currently addressing the need to improve services.
He reiterated that the public should make changes to their lifestyle, saying they must ensure there was no wastage in resources such as water, energy and food.
He said if certain adjustments were made, the public would not be “too badly affected by price increases”.
- Congratulations, u certainly have become less popular. and not only can you NOT satisfy everyone, u cant hardly satisfy any1. Thanks for downgrading my lifestyle from economy rice to roti canai (even roti canai not cheap nowadays) Hmm... wat adjustments should i make to ensure i dont suffer so much? move to somewhere inside klang valley, where the property prices will kill me? downgrade my 1,300 cc car to kancil to save petrol (wont save by much, plus not as safe), or the worst option, take a motorcycle to work? (public transport not an option for those staying in Sg. long)
"He said the hike in fuel prices would cause a projected increase in inflation of around 4% to 5%. It would also have an impact on the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth but was confident that it could be maintained at 5% this year."
- hahaha!!! what a joke!!! petrol price goes up by 40%, thats already an inflation. and on average most food products (which we spend quite heavily on) will at minimum go up by 10%. But of course we know most hawkers and restaurants will jack up more than that. Do you think they will increase your wan tan mee by 35 sen if it used to be RM3.50? Maybe not. maybe they will increase it to Rm4.00. Heck, even my old car park management company has raised their season parking rates by about RM 15-20. Thats more than 10% increase for something that doesnt even have any of its cost directly related to the price of petrol.
OKOK... thats enuff on this piece of news.
On to other news today, guess what?
- Price of cooking gas delivery will increase (LPG did not increase though, thank god)
- Electricty rates will go up (for businesses and factories. Minister says it wont affect us, i say bullsh!t!!!)
- ceiling price of chicken lifted (meaning more expensive chickens)
So yes, we are all royally screwed. All these price increases on the same day of the fuel price hike. Who knows what will happen a week or a month from now? Maybe PM knows he's a goner, so he's taking revenge and punishing the rakyat for not giving BN the vote of confidence in March. All i can say is that i see very much bleaker days ahead for all malaysians. More kiasu ppl will appear (can't blame them). less yumcha sessions, if got it will be the case of who is going to pick who up? car pools, hehehe.
Even Yours Truly, who is no longer a miserly fellow (my nickname in primary school) will now behave a bit more scroogely than he used to. Sigh...
Boodyboy, out!!!
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