The 2nd Tsunami!

Photo courtesy from Malaysiakini

The sudden announcement of the petrol hike of 78 sen by the PM after the Cabinet meeting have caught many Malaysian by surprise.It contradicted with the earlier statement by the Domestic Trade and Consumer Minister, Datuk Shahrir that the actual implementation will only take place in August. The reaction from the ground was filled with anger and disappointment.Have earlier received the bad news from my buddy at 5.35pm and thought it was just another rumours but was confirmed later at 6pm by text messages.

Managed to have my tank fill up at one of the petrol station at Jalan Kuchai Lama.The terrible queue at all the petrol stations to meet the midnight deadline have caused unnecessary traffic congestion.

Now let's us compare the price of our petrol with other OIL PRODUCING countries

UAE– RM1.19/litre

Eygpt– RM1.03/litre

Bahrain– RM0.87/litre

Qatar– RM0.68/litre

Kuwait– RM0.67/litre

Saudi Arabia– RM0.38/litre

Iran– RM0.35/litre

Nigeria– RM0.32/litre

Turkmenistan– RM0.25/litre

Venezuela– RM0.16/litre

MALAYSIA– RM2.70/litre

The above statistics clearly show that we have the highest price among all the oil producing countries. Another Malaysian achievement! Malaysia Boleh!

Majority of Malaysian drive to work because we do not have an efficient public transport system like Singapore to rely on. This increase will definitely cut deep into the pockets of the ordinary Rakyat.

Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is taking a major political risk in removing subsidies on petrol. "It is not an attempt to be popular, we have to think in the best interests of the people,"
"God willing I hope Malaysians will not demonstrate over this," he said.

But his call may go unheeded as fresh protests over the price increases are likely, said PAS parliamentarian Mohd Hatta Ramli who led anti-inflation demonstrations earlier this year.
"This is a massive hike and will create big problems for all and sundry. It will have a knock-on effect of increasing prices of all kinds of goods," he said.
"We strongly feel that it is a severe misjudgement on the part of the government," he said. "In all probability, there will be a protest."

With the instability of the current BN government and the dependency of the East Malaysian party for support, the above political risk taken by the Pak Lah administration might have adverse repercussion.