Malaysian Fuel Up 40% Overnight

Although I'm ten thousand miles away from home, I could still hear about what just happened yesterday - a 78 cents per liter fuel price hike - 40% increase from its original price.

Me and my friends talked about this issue, and we had mixed ideas. One of my friends said he just loves the idea of subsidies being scraped away - as in, let's live with the market price and let's stop pampering fellow Malaysians with subsidies. Another agreed on this price hike because he said the government can no longer pay the higher subsidies as oil prices worldwide keep increasing lately. Plus, he said any price increase would definitely start causing people to adapt to a new lifestyle - carpooling, start using public transportation, or even start using old roads instead of highways to keep our expenses low.

My personal opinion? I don't know, but to me, any price increase is not good. It'll take months for me to find any good reason why fuel price increase is favorable. Even Americans are whining now because they're now paying close to $4.00 per gallon (around RM3.25 per liter - some people actually compared this and said "hey, bersyukur la, minyak kat US $3.25 seliter, kat Malaysia baru $2.70 seliter" - URGHH!!!)

At the same time, I'm actually quite confused, as to how the subsidy system really works. There should be a connection between Malaysia being the net exporter, the price of oil increasing and the fact that our government owns Petronas, which is now enjoying higher profits due to the price increase. If Petronas earns more, that means the government now earns more since Petronas is government owned (Plus Petronas pays taxes to the Feds). When the government has more money, doesn't that mean it is now even easier to subsidize gasoline than before - even with worldwide price increase?

I admit I'm not good at how the system really works, but until today nobody from the upper levels had come up with figures to clearly show or explain to us why Malaysian gasoline price should increase by 40% overnight. If increasing world price of oil has really hurt the government's budget due to the subsidies, I'd definitely support any option that'd be best for the situation, but when nobody explains what the hell is really going on at the backstage, how would I know if we Malaysians have been cheated or is this really for the good of the country? If any of you out there actually read this post and knows how the subsidy system really works, please kindly explain it to me on the comment section. I really need to know about it.

You know, it is true, we could all start carpooling now, but reality is - things are always easier said than done. If 50% of our drivers now decide to carpool, I'd award Malaysians as the most adaptable human beings on this planet.

No, it won't be 50%. Even 20% is good enough. Will people start using old curvy roads rather than highways? 20% less traffic on the highways - I'd call that a miracle. And how many people are willing to switch from using their 2.0 liter Honda to a 1.6 liter Waja?

Still talking about adapting? Maybe we need to start including some element of reality in there as well.

Right now, all I know is this - regardless, whether this price hike is the right decision or not, a 40% increase in the price of gasoline at gas stations will absolutely lead to higher inflation. And since most likely Malaysians' earnings won't go up as much as even 20% by next year, I doubt more among us would actually be happy that we're now paying RM2.70 per liter to fuel up our cars. The consequences will be worse.

Wake up, fellow Malaysians. I'm calling all of us find out if taking back the subsidy is really necessary for the betterment of the country. The government now better has some good figures to show us that this decision will benefit our life quality more than the price difference that we now have to pay at gas stations. As one of Malaysian citizens, I demand a thorough explanation on this decision.