To Oil Or Be Oil'ed

There are those who are strongly against the reduction of oil subsidy by such a big percentage, while others are agreeable that the subsidy should go, sooner or later.

I am in agreement that the subsidy should go, although it should not have been introduced in the first place.

From what I see is that the country coffer is running dry and they press the panic button without accounting for its consequences that follows.

Our own Petronas or rather the BN Petronas ( since the rakyat is not entitle to know the accounting of how the profit money are being used ) is making tonnes of money as the price of oil keeps going up. Now the big billion dollar question is "Where Are The Money"?
Since the Government is reluctant to divulge, speculations and rumours are abound. The biggest speculation is "CORRUPTION" followed by creating non beneficial mega projects to entertain their cronies.

Lets recap two years ago when the oil price was increased by 30 cents. The leaders were proud to announce a saving of four (4) billion Ringgit and that this saving will be put into a special account solely for the improvement of the transportation system.

Two years down the road is there any sign of the transportation system improvement and the question again is "what happen to this special account, where has the four (4) billion ringgit gone to"?

This Government is taking the rakyat for fools and with power they think they can do what they want, spend what they like without any accounting. Almost everything with regard to the country money are under OSA or you will be ISA'ed if you ask too much.

As I had said earlier, it is better to rid off the subsidy but before doing so the Government must have the guts and willingness to act on the following:

1) Tell the truth (even if it hurts) and show the full Petronas Account

2) Provide a blue print with time line to construct a proper transportation system for the country.

3) Remove all toll charges or reduce the charges significantly.

4) Hold back all the super corridors

5) No more non beneficial events like the monsoon cup, F1, Langkawi Air-Show etc.

6) No more entertainment and holiday allowances.

7) No more purchasing of imported cars for Government Officials, use Malaysian make cars.

8) Have the GUTS to rid of corruptions and leakages.

There are many, many more that the Government can save on.

I would like to stress a little further on item 2 above. Public transportation is the key to reducing the demand for oil usage. If we have a good and efficient transportation system that can take us anywhere we want, we will not be so hard-up to own a car.

The Government always stated that what they doing are for the rakyat benefits, but they do not outline what are the benefits in the open transparent way. What or how they are going to use the money that are saved from the reduction of subsidy. They must outline a program with timeline of how or what they are going to do. The rakyat needs to be informed regularly, we are no longer the dumb fools of yesteryear's.