Comments on: Should EVERYONE change their lifestyle to reduce fuel price impact?

By: poobalan

poobalan — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 16:14:26 +0000

well, i’ve been in singapore and did not walk several km for access to public transports. even in cases where i walked about few hundred metres, there were proper walkways and shades. if we were to walk in klang valley, one may soon get respiratory disease due to smoke and dust, need to carry a change of clothes (and shower too), and it takes nearly double the usual time to reach the destination. we can’t just look at people working in klcc, putrajaya, mid valley, etc, where public transport is in close proximity. there are many people who travel from outer kl, changing buses, lining up for 20 minutes at LRT stations, waiting at unlighted bus stands in early hours of the morning for bus, and so on.

i think malaysians are becoming more speedier, but the transportation is pulling them back. one of the reason for personal transport. followed by cramped transport, sexual harassment, dirty conditions, long waiting/transit time, etc. just look at my own situation – if i drive, it takes 20 minutes on average. if i were to take public transport, need to drive 7 minutes to bus station and take 3 buses to office. a total of nearly 2 hours.

as for moving forward, we can see more people take up second or third jobs, be more enterprising, reduce luxuries like vacation and eating out.

By: poobalan

poobalan — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 16:00:25 +0000

well, one example of the stats is comparison with the countries. in the first place, govt should have clearly explained why they are comparing with those countries they compare with. what are the basis? when the opposition or public compare with oil producing countries, the govt is quiet. but good to hear from you, the rebuttal – that oil producing countries are generally having quality of living far lower than us (except ME and Brunei). i can accept that. Venezuela and Egypt, for example have higher unemployment rate, lower income per capita, and more poor people. whereas in our country, these figures are still in acceptable level (minus the Gini value of course). however, that leaves us with a problem – with whom can we compare? comparing with UK and US is ridiculous as well. I think the question that the govt finds most difficult to answer is that why were there no foresight to improve public transportation, to reduce subsidy on petrol earlier, and to make petronas accounts more transparent. now only want to buy bus, and review transportation services. its kind of “nasi sudah jadi bubur”. The govt is getting punished for its mismanagement in one way or another. the effect of price increase is actually a symptom of a deeper problem.

still, the government should be explaining about all the above instead of comparing with ASEAN countries, UK, US etc. People also get fed up and more irritated.

well sir, even if you are affected, imagine the common folks. it is very hard to explain to people earning 2/3k and below. what i worry most is that some quarters will give up adjusting and resort to crime – either violent or cheating type. the impact if price hike is far reaching, more than just increase of food and materials.

yes, the impact is all over the world. and we can see protests taking place everywhere. india, europe, south america, etc. won’t be long before govts are changed. whichever countries having shaky majority, fragile coalition, or weak leadership may see changes. unless oil prices drop drastically.

By: maya

maya — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 07:12:39 +0000

i agree with u.

By: Killer

Killer — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 04:03:42 +0000

maya reply on June 12, 2008:

what kind of changes u expect from the poor rakyat?

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Well, I am not in a position to advise people on how the should run their lives. But look at this way. There is nothing to be gained by sitting down, crying and complaining. It would be more useful to think on how we can move forward.

There is a lot of things people can do to change their lifestyle. For many of us, we had been living beyond our means in terms of cars, houses and lifestyle. The many poor people in Malaysia hardly can be considered poor when you compare them with other Third world nations. In fact the car ownership in Malaysia is one of the highest in the world. And don’t blame the poor public transport for that. Although ours is not world-class, it can hardly be termed as poor. It is just that Malaysians are just plain lazy and pampered. People talk about HK and Singapore but if you live there you know that you still need to wak several kms to get public transport. If you live in countries like US, it is no better than Malaysia unless you stay in places like Manhattan in NY.

By: VJ

VJ — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 03:39:37 +0000

the issues not only petrol hike and subsidy . It’s how the elected brains work to order to mitigate the problem .
I would not mind if the petrol goes to market price IF :
- gov had constructed good publin transport network (like Singapore)
- gov fund (inlcd those subsidy allocation) used for good deed instead of useless mega projects like space tour , putra jaya ….etc
- political corruption in control else the hard earned tax money flushed into pockets

kudos to BN which failed to perform …. and thanks to all the BN jalras…

By: VJ

VJ — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 03:29:50 +0000

there’s a leadership concept called ‘lead by example’ . Not the other way around (though it’s common among ruling politicians)
People wont listen to a minister whom travels via super jet (bought via tax money) whom asking lay citizens to eat ubi instead of rice . Ridiculous !

By: maya

maya — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 01:06:50 +0000

what kind of changes u expect from the poor rakyat?

By: Killer

Killer — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 00:54:42 +0000

Dear Poobalan

We can close our eyes and blame the govt for all we want but that not going to change. I am too keen to see the so-called stats and data you had mentioned. There is no way to justify keeping the petrol subsidies. No economists I have known (the prominent ones) had supported the subsidies, only the opportunists politicians making such idiotic claims.

As for comparing with non-oil producing countries, hello bro, wake up. The issue here is not whether oit fuel is cheaper or more expensive, but if the country can afford it. It is stupid to make comparison with countries with massive fuel subsidies but with the quality of living far below us (Egypt, Venezuela,etc). The ME countries and Brunei can subsidise it because they have massive revenues from oil and flushed with cash. There are countries too with oil revenue but dearer prices than us.

I understand people’s hardship and I am affected too. I have made my adjustments long ago since the last price hike. However this pain is felt all over the world and not just in Malaysia. Read the news. Imagine the impact of this in India, China and Phil for example (bear in mind that they have much lower income per capita).

By: poobalan

poobalan — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 16:39:11 +0000

on the contrary, most malaysians are hitting on the right point now. They are not able to change anymore. How to change the lifestyle after this? Walk to work like those workers in India after bus drivers organised a strike yesterday? Plant/rear own food source and harvest them? I think it is nearly impossible for a family of 4 with two school going kids to live with income of 3k now. Even middle class is being classified as earning 6K or more, but I’m not how that was derived.
Malaysians are starting to realise that they have been hoodwinked all this while by the government. More and more educated Malaysians (especially those in the know) are coming out in the open to dispute statistics and facts revealed by government. Oil industry staff, statisticians, academicians, financial analysts, traders, etc just have to send an email out, and within days it will be circulated to many people. Gone are the days where people are not able to verify government’s action and facts, and had to take things at face value. People are asking what happened to Transportation Master Plan, what happened to RM4 billion saved last year, why oil-producing country is being compared with non-oil producing countries, why cars have high import tax, why public transport don’t get more subsidy, why…, why…, why…, so many whys that is drowning the government.

The administration is also not doing itself a favor by making a mess on convincing the rakyat. I guess things are going to go downhill from here.

By: Killer

Killer — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 08:08:41 +0000

I want to see how Lim Kit Siang and Anwar plan share the pain of rakyat. So far they old been talking but not doing anything of worth.

In fact I would like to see the govt to cut the allowance of MPs (including the Pakatan Rakyat folks).

However, I think most Malaysians are missing the point if they only looking at the govt, ministers and MPs. They should be changing themselves rather than looking at and questioning others.