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.