Across the causeway

I'm so sure I'm going to be sued for this entry.

On my bus ride home, I catch a few segments of the Malaysians protesting against the reduction of fuel subsidy. The protests were pretty amusing (causing me to laugh on the bus), especially the commentaries made by the opposition party leaders. Things like:

Teo Kin Teng, a translator, said: "We produce so much oil – import the poorer quality one and export our high quality one – why can't the government use the proceeds to subsidise the people? The increase is not making sense."

The new policy to attempt to redistribute wealth by giving cash handouts to those owners of cars with less than 2 litres engines seems more reasonable than the current subsidy. Using of subsidised fuel will pay less attention to its usage than users who pay the full price. Yet, the sudden increase is definitely bad publicity for the government, especially when the opposition parties are gaining a foothold in the Malaysian elections. Petrol cost USD1.60 per litre in Singapore, while USD0.84 before the reduction of subsidy in Malaysia. No wonder Singaporeans like to go across the causeway. (USD0.05 per litre in Venezula - essential free oil?; USD2.65 pre litre in Norway)

From the government's point of view, it's understandable why they would want to cut the subsidy. With rising fuel prices and food prices, the government can't just keep the prices at the same level as they will run out of money. The Malaysians shouldn't have started with subsidies in the first place as subsidies distort the real price, and will eventually prove to be a burden. Getting rid of the subsidies should have been done centuries ago, yet it has proved to be a politically bad move as evident from the protests in Malaysia. The Bumiputra policy is also another grand idea that they should discard. (This remains a highly sensitive issue which I should keep my mouth shut on it)

With rising oil and food prices, what can we all do? Nothing I guess. We can't sit back and wish that the government save us as truly socialist societies rarely exist in these days. What the government can do and should do instead is help its poorest people.