Article submitted by Mr. Hareeraja (Facebook account here) .
All have now started to make noise in regarding of fuel price hike up. We can see banners, posters, online templates, short messages, whatsapp and many more media way to criticize the government’s move to increase the fuel price and the government are not concern over its people. I know there are instant economists; instant experts sitting in front of the computer are ready to put nasty comment on my write up. There will pro opposition who only believe their theory rather than trying or knowing the facts to attack me with your troops. Well I am not bothered and worried as I speak with the fact and base on the knowledge and involvement I have with these processes.
First of all I would like to correct your complain sentence. It is not fuel price was increased. It is suppose to mention as, the fuel subsidiary has been reduced. I can hear you saying “same lah” but it makes a lot of difference. Let me explain.
If a government is increasing the price even there is no subsidiary then the country is going to inflation stage where the country is heading for poor country status. Example many African nation need to spend millions of their own currency to buy a shirt and many more. Millions? Yes I mention millions. The sign of the country is getting weak can be seen in their currency value. This is leading to disastrous.
If a government is reducing subsidiary and implementing more transparent tax system, then it is heading to high income nation. High income nation or develop country has less subsidiary or no subsidiary and more transparent tax system and of course the tax percentage is very high in the range of 35% to 55% depends on the income range. Their payback system is by providing free education, jobless survival fund, single mother survival fund and many more. Example in England, jobless are paid weekly for their survival and single mother are paid weekly for survival. This mean the government has more funds to develop and maintain sustainability to run the nation.
I hope you can understand the difference between price increases and reduce subsidiary.
Now come back to the topic of reducing the fuel subsidiary matter. At the time I wrote this explanation, the Petrol price was RM2.55 per litre without subsidiary and after subsidiary reduced the new subsidiary price will be RM0.35 per litre which government will bear. Now let’s talk about Pakatan Rakyat Leader who told, the price of fuel will be reduced to RM1.70 per litre if they take over Putrajaya. If it happens then the PR government have to pay RM0.85 per litre. Current Government is spending billions of ringgit for the fuel subsidiary. If PR takes over and the fuel price reduced by increasing the subsidiary which will result 41% increase in subsidiary which will cause 41% increase in already billion dollar subsidiary payout. What are the impacts of paying high subsidiary? The explanation is given if you read further down.
During 1998 recession, Malaysia have borrowed large sum of money from the World Bank to sustain the country during the recession period. This is done during Tun Dr. Mahathir’s time which means the current Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was the Deputy Prime Minister and also the Finance Minister. In order to achieve high income nation, there are many areas which need to be developed, such as human capital, efficient infrastructure and proper transportation system, road system and many more. When we have the right resources and policies, more FDI (Foreign Direct Investments) can be attracted to our Country which increase the cash flow movement in the country and creates more opportunity for the people in terms of job and business opportunity which is key to the high income nation. We cannot be developing all the said things by having debts with World Bank. This will always have high risk of having outsiders having influence over our country. The only way to reduce the risk is by minimizing the debts and at the same time we must continuously develop all the necessary for high income nation. Looking into that, we need to manage the available resources to achieve the country’s vision 2020. That is the reason the subsidiary are being reduced in stages. When you understand this, you will be asking my salary is not increased but the living cost is increasing tremendously. We always blame the government for the living cost increase but are we blaming the right people are for the price increase are we doing the right thing? The traders are making use of these subsidiary reductions as a reason to increase their price. The suppliers are making use of this situation to increase their margin when their allowed to increase minimum percentage. Example, when fuel subsidiary reduced they are allow to increase RM0.10 to RM0.20 but they will use the situation to increase RM0.50 and above. Some of the traders are given subsidiary but yet they will still increase the price for their profitability. Now I am sure you will complain the government should have the price guideline and strict enforcement. For your info the government has strict guideline and there are department for price control. Many people fail to utilise the department. People can just call their helpline number and make complains. The officers will come with non official uniform and do the investigation. The trader will be fined if they are found guilty. If repeated they can be brought infront of law for more severe punishment. We normally will not call and make a report because either we do not know there is such department or we think it is no use. Own perception and influence of opposition will not make us do it. If someone makes the report and after several days they see the price still remain, they will just say useless reporting to them because they won’t take action. This is where we forget our basic rights and we are too lazy to follow up. If we put some effort, the traders will not be set free to increase as they like. When we do not utilise certain rights effectively we will suffer. We always point finger to others but we fail to understand and practise our rights properly.
As I said the MNC companies are paying very good and sustainable salaries to our people. Those who have the right qualification and skills are employed and being paid well enough. These people are still buying foreign brand cars, go to expensive coffee outlets and goes to expensive restaurant but yet they will join hands to complaint with the others. The real effected group is those who are working in average local companies. Their pay is below the market rate. These are the people who are really affected with the increase of prices. The government have increase the minimum wages and enforce it as law. This figure is not a figure picked from the sky and made it as law but it was studied in detail and faced many problems before implementing the figures as compulsory figure to follow. Government cannot set wages range as enforcement even though they have the salary scale because there are various industries which have different percentage of profit which determine the salary of the industry. That is the reason the Government is giving out BR1M to these group and not the highly paid salary group. The subsidiary which is reduced are compensate to these target group and if you calculate on the lost of subsidiary in your personal expenses and the amount given, it will sum up equally or show more and Government is putting the effort to give more payout to these target group and also the poor rural people. Government have created more platforms and spending money for the programs for these groups to enhance their education level and skills to match the high income group so these group will be pushed to the high income group and Government create more facilities for the existing entrepreneurs to enhance their business and Government encouraging many entrepreneurs development program to create more entrepreneurs in our Country. This are way to push for high income nation and our government are managing these within the available resources. If we take the concept of Pakatan Rakyat Leader, we have to use huge sum of amount to pay the subsidiary and to maintain our infrastructure which will lead to borrow more money from the World Bank or to other foreign resources which will result more disastrous position. In simple way if you borrow more money and you are unable to return then you will be soon control by the borrower. I believe normal layman can understand these concepts well. More over Pakatan Rakyat government brags they have the money which previous state government did not have but they fail to maintain even basic infrastructure. Example in Selangor many roads have pot holes, rubbish collection are not done well which made more illness to the people and the list goes on. What is the point of having money in the reserves but not utilise for the people. Government have more money but people have to spend unwanted course directly such as maintaining their vehicle and spend money for illness as a result of not providing and maintaining basic resources. In long run it will be even worse. This is equivalent inefficiency.
The previous country leader has given more facilities to sustain their position in the government, made many millionaires within them and the list goes on but the current Leader is committed to build this nation to High income nation. Nothing comes easy without any struggle. Let me give you an example, if a company has decided to enhance their business, they first will draw out their plans, improve and increase human resource and do capacity building, ensure all the resources needed are available and then execute the plan. During this period, many facilities to the shareholders will not be given or will be limited and even at times the dividend will not be paid to the shareholders. The shareholders will accept the struggle and continuously support the transformation plan. Country is also the same. The management are the Prime Minister and his team and we people are the shareholder. We as shareholder have to accept the challenges and struggle and continuously improve to support the country’s transformation. The current Prime Minister has his plan drawn perfectly. He is managing crisis well. Infact during the Euro crisis, Malaysia are not affected because of the plan. Many experts all over the world have praise his plan and work. His Nation Blue Wave Strategy is appreciated by many. Only we Malaysian and other pro opposition foreign experts and institution is criticising. Ofcourse there are some useless Ministers in his team which he need to chop off to have better efficient execution team for his plan.
There also will be question of corruption. Yes agree that corruption is the killer virus of the country and Malaysia are affected of this virus. Lets look at the AG’s report recently. He mentioned “there are still misuse of fund can be seen”. This sentence can be meant in many ways but the most popular was to mean it with the Pakatan Rakyat way. The real meaning of it is after so much effort, corruption still can be found. Which means it is sign of reducing. The government is putting a lot of effort to fight against corruption. It can be reduced but cannot be eliminated. Even corruption still available in PR Government even they brag so much of their transparency. Corruption is happening everywhere including in private sectors and the sad part is those who are fighting against corruption in the public are doing corruption in their private working life. PR have always labelled BN Government is not transparent. If they are not transparent why they made AG report public? It has happen before? BN is brave enough to accept the mistake and continuously improve the transparency rather than PR publically advertising their transparency but still awarding direct contracts to the contractors. Well this topic needs to go in detail and I will explain my point in this matter some other time.
We Malaysian are very easily influenced by anyone. We forget to put the effort to know the real fact and make a decision. Many are making campaign against the government for not being equal to the minority group which I agree in some and disagree in some. This is the country who gave freedom to practise our own religion. Malaysia has more temples outside of India. We have more non-muslim multimillionaires in this country. There are many issues which we need to fight for equality such as education, contract matters, corruption and etc which is essential to remind the Country Top Leader that the People (Shareholders) are very concern.
Stop complaining and work hard towards to improve yourself which directly will contribute to the growth of the nation. Successful people do not complain. They work hard and find ways to be at the top. We have to come out from the comfort zone and work hard to achieve the vision.
If we do not change our self, no matter who comes to govern us, we will not be successful.
Hareeraja
