Sunday, June 08, 2008

Hi my fellow Rvn’s . How are you ppl holding up? I hope everyone’s doing fine. As for me, these past 2 weeks or so has been pretty hectic as I am busy preparing for my finals . However, the main reason of my post today is to voice my anger and frustration at the current crisis our beloved country is facing.

Recently, our Gov raised the petrol prices from RM1.92/litre to RM2.70, an increase of 80 cents. Their reason for this? The gov wouldn’t be able to subsidize oil anymore due to the high oil prices globally. Then, thinking we are stupid... they compare us with neighboring countries like Singapore and Thailand and say that we are still paying at a discount. Well first of all, countries like Sg and Thai are not oil producing countries whereas our country is a producer of oil. But if we were to compare with other oil producing countries:-

Brunei: Rm1.19/liltre

S.Arabia: RM0.38/litre

Iran: RM0.35/litre

Kuwait: RM0.67/litre

Qatar: RM0.68/litre

Bahrain: RM0.87/litre

Malaysia is paying so much more!

Personally, I think the increase in oil price is really a bad political move by BN considering the political chaos they are currently in now. I think all this boils down to poor management. Before this, the gov promised the nation that there will be no increase in prices of oil at least until August. Then, they imposed a ban for foreign cars to pump petrol at our gas stations claiming they are enjoying our subsidy. However, after a few days of imposing the ban.. the gov decide to cancel this ban and saying that the increase in price to RM2.70 is almost equivalent to the market rate. Poor management. Apart from that our gov has also wasted billions of the taxpayers’ money by investing in the wrong projects. The controversial National Service where hundreds of millions are pumped in every year to run it.. going to space.. another few hundred million there..the PSC -Naval Dockyard patrol boats project ... and compensating the contractor who were supposed to build the new bridge from johor to Singapore.. Who’s money that’s wasted? Ours, the taxpayers’…our hard earned money flushed down just like that… Apart from that, there’s a 300% tax on imported cars! Other countries who’s oil prices are high don’t have such taxes!.. The last hike of 30 cents was supposed to save RM 14 billion, to be used to improve our transportation problems/systems...its really bullshit I tell you...And also our income per capita and purchasing power are so low.. everything else is increasing except for our income. Unlike us, Singapore's income per capita is increasing yearly... we are lagged behind..A fresh grad now can hardly survive out there.

Furthermore, what about Petronas? The pride of our country.. Possibly the richest company in South-East Asia..earning billions a year.. Where has all the profit gone to? Can Malaysia really achieve its aim of being a developed country by 2020? Or would we be like other third-world countries by then? More and more people are leaving the country… Malaysia is suffering from the brain-drain disease … A lot of foreign graduates don’t wanna come back home… There’s so much potential and talent out there but what’s the point if they don’t come back?? A lot of Malaysian people I meet in Melbourne are planning to work in Australia for a few years before deciding to come back .. Looking at the current situation now.. not many would wanna come back… The question now is how to save our country? The recent elections already showed that many people want change. 5 of the most advanced states have been lost to the opposition. The rakyat has spoken, the results speak for itself. Let’s all just pray that our country will improve and somehow get itself out of the mess it’s currently in.

- Buck up or Get out!

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