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Thursday, June 05, 2008

petrol price hike in malaysia

I was inspired to write this piece as soon as I got the SMS regarding price hike after midnight earlier in the evening.

Before you scroll further down, I must warn you that this post may not be well-accepted to everyone. You may not agree with what I say here. Even so, I'd still spill my thoughts out on this sheet.

"Petrol at RM 2.70, Diesel at RM 2.50 after midnight," read one of the text message.

A couple of hours later, when I was on my way out to basketball court, I saw 'chaos' at every petrol station I passed by. People were actually raiding the petrol station for fuel. The number of cars swarming towards the petrol station is just ridiculous.

Each time there is price hike, this happens. I must say, out of the long line, probably small percentage of it really needs petrol, with near-empty tank. The rest, are just rushing to fill up the petrol tank just for the sake of enjoying the last bit of RM 1.91 per litre petrol here. (The price for petrol here in Sarawak is RM 1.91; and it's 1 cent more in the Peninsular.) I'm not sure about the price for Diesel, but the sources available, the increase rate is 63% - from 1.58 to 2.58 per litre.

I mean, is this really necessary? I've seen this when I was in KL, and I'm still seeing it here in Kuching. When I was on my home after the basketball session, the petrol stations are still packed with customers.

I may not see eye-to-eye with many of you guys out there, but what's the point of save up one tank of fuel? How much difference does it make? After that tank, you'll still need to buy the petrol at the new rate! It's not like you can stock up gallons of petrol in your crib!

Annna.net just pointed out there was limit set for each patrons in the petrol station. RM 30 per customers. That's quite a sound move by the gas stations to protect both consumers and the petrol station's interest.

Oh, and I forgot to mention the time used to wait in queue to get into the petrol station for refill, the fuel consumed while waiting with the running engine as the car waits in the line, and also causing horrific jam in the traffic. I bet it was worse in KL. I've seen that before some 2 yrs ago.

Enough on the lining up for petrol issue.

Just what on earth are they thinking when they decide to shock the nation with this decision? Aren't they suppose to review the decision whether to remove the fuel subsidies or not on the 8th this month? I have also read about the decision to raise the petrol rate only in August. What happened to those? Why the sudden decision?

What's the real agenda?

I doubt the money-man in-charge would reveal the true intention to us. I don't know. I am no politic analyst, I am no economist, I'm just an IT graduate, who is better equipped with DSLR in hand than doing IT job.

For more on that, I think this post by JeffOoi.com elaborated the points clear enough.

Everything seems so wrong. Since being appointed as the lead man in the country, it seems that everything is on the rise, except for the nation's economy. Prior to this petrol price hike, we have price rise in flour, rice and etc.

With this going on, we can only forsee the poor become poorer, and the rich becomes richer. It's not helping the nation's economy overall. The backbone is clearly weak.

I mean, inflation will always be there, but instead of blaming on the inflation, couldn't we counter it with a stronger economy? We should improvise, really.

It's 4:22am now, I should really get some sleep now. Again, if you find this bit hard to digest, don't mind it. It's just me letting my inner thoughts out, instead of keeping it in me all the time. I have more to say, but I ain't got the time to write here.


Written at 3:12 am, posted at 10:40am.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Luckily the arrow didn't shoot me !! *LOL*

I know what you mean.. But if really go and calculate, it does make a different. Take annna.net's example. One car was allowed RM30. If I were to go pump today, I've to pay RM42 for the same amount of litres. T__T Can save freaking nabeh mofo RM12 :D

Ok.. just my 2cents. tsk tsk..

Soon Hui said...

Allen, since I stay in KL and since I make it a vow not to talk about politics and current news on my blog, allow me to post my thoughts here.

Yesterday evening I went to IOI mall for a dinner with a friend who stays in SS17, PJ area. She started to drive at 6pm...and reached IOI at 9pm. An otherwise 20 min drive stretched into a 3 hour nightmare. Reason? A lot of cars were swamping the petrol stations and the queue went so long that all the roads outside the petrol stations were occupied. So she had to move at a snail pace.

Let's calculate the cost here. One can fill up at most RM30 of petrol, which means that they could save at most RM12. But in order for to be eligible for that "benefit", one needed to endure hours of traffic jam for no purpose. Worth it? Maybe KL people's minds are skewed.

Allen, I fully agreed with you on your thoughts on our leading man here. One thing that irked me most was that he increased the petrol suddenly. There should be a gap between the announcement and the actual time for petrol increase. Why a decision had to made in such a rush manner? Like there was an emergency.

Very very bad.

SCTie said...

When the news reached me, it was 5.30pm and I was packing to go back from work (office at Cyberjaya). Cars were queuing up at petrol stations but at a manageable pace. Along the way home, I passed through 4 more stations all facing the same fate. I went back home without detour.

At 8pm I drove out to dinner. Queue had overflowed until the main road was congested. I moved on to dinner - no detour.

At 10.00pm the queue had come down but it still piled up to the main road. I headed back home.

At 11.45pm I drove out to check on the nearby petrol station and also try my luck (there was 30KM left before my Kenari hit 'Empty') The queue was slightly better but I could be so certain that I needed to wait for >30 min to get mine. I headed straight home...again.

Here's the thing: I am not willing to spend time waiting in my car to save RM20+ before the petrol hike. What's RM20+ or even RM50+ savings to a person anyway? If you spread it over a month, it's like saving a cup of teh tarik a day!

Anonymous said...

It does make a BIG BIG difference, my friend. Yesterday, the whole nation get to fill up their tank 78cents per liter cheaper than today.

I suppose you don't pump a liter of petrol each time. If so, 78 cents maybe nothing to you. Do you think cars drink tea?