Bankruptcy at the door but Najib and BN continue to misrepresent fuel subsidies

EVERY TIME the mainstream newspapers report on Petronas' profits, government fuel subsidies and how the government is helping the Rakyat withj just marginal increases at the pump for petrol when world prices rise, my blood pressure rises. The business editors just report wholesale ONE SIDE of the story, how the subsidy element keeps rising without also looking at the flipside. Being not a parrot, I have rebutted the government's continued usage of "oil subsidies" as an excuse to raise oil prices at the pump, and each time contributes to another round of inflation.

> If the government were a caring and responsible government, it would have directed the national oil corporation, Petronas, to share rising revenues, hence also profits, with rthe people, who are also tax-payers. When world oil prices go up, our local pump price should go “south”, and at least remain stationary, and the peopple don’t have to further tighten their belts because essential daily items keep rising in price too.

> The Star on April 6, 2012 reported the government’s continued bullshitting via Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob, harping on the government's purported kindness to the consumers who are ordinary people by maintaining RON95 price when the it had earlier raised the price for RON97 by 10sen from RM2.80 to RM2.90 per litre.

Extracting relevant paragraphs of the news report:

RON95 subsidy to stay

KUALA LUMPUR: The price of RON95 petrol will remain at RM1.90 per litre for now as the Government has no intention of reducing or removing the subsidy, said Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob.

He said most Malaysians were not affected by the petrol price increase since only 10% use RON97, which is not subsidised by the Govern¬ment.

“Don’t worry, we will still maintain (the subsidy) for now,” he said after launching the Perfect Livin ‘12 exhibition yesterday.

The global rise in oil prices pushed the subsidy for RON95 petrol up by 10 sen to RM1.03 per litre in March. (ends Star news extract)

The other side of untold story

Let me remind the parroting minister that our country is a NETT PRODUCVER/EXPORTER OF PETROLEUM, so when the world price rises, we get more income for our higher-grade oil exports, SO MALAYSIA HAS BEEN A NET BENEFICIARY ON RISING WORLD OIL PRICES.

Yes, current Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim,having served as Finance Minister, has the "inside picture" of Petronas' balance sheets; hence he was able tp promise an immeidate lowering of oil prices at the pump if Pakatan Rakyat formed the federal government as a key platform at the 2008's General Elections. Ditto is his promise at the impending 13th GE.

The Sunday Times today frontpaged “BN DELIVERS” quoting PM Najib Tun Razak as saying that, in launching BN’s nationwide Jelajah Janji Ditepati carnival in Batu Pahat, the people should realise that PR, comprising DAP, PKR and PAS, had only made empty promises.

He then listed BN’s succesful programmes to help the people, again quoting the NST report, viz:

“The government had also implemented other programmes to ease the people’s burden, such as the RM500 allowancefor households eraning less than RM3,000 under the 1Malaysia People’s Aid, providing book viouchers for students, increasing the salary of civil servants by between seven and 13 per cent, and setting up of 1Malaysia clinics and 1Malaysia outlets.

He (najib) said as part of efforts to ease the people’s burden, the government had not raised the price f RON95 petrol. (ends NST news report extract)

Sloganeering and half measures

To me, Najib in his three years as PM has been delivering lots of programmes which are essentially “sloganeering” and imlementing “half measures” instead of tackling problems at the roots, hence the gifts of using the people’s tax-money and Petrnoas’ riches to gift away as “angpows” which will soon be spent by the “poor” Malaysians.

Had the BN government been truly transparent and accountable in using the country’s resources and taxpapyers’ monies,there would have been no need for all these “token” handouts as oil porices at the pump would not have been rised several rouds durinbg Najib’s premiership, thus cuasing the cost of living to rise, and hitting the low-income and hardcore poor groups the hardest.

In conclusion, I would urge that Petronas’ oil revenues and expenditures BE MADE ACCOUNTABLE TO THE PEOPLE VIA PARLIAMENT. At present, Malaysians in general cannot be faulted for thinking a major portion of Petronas’ monies are being siphoned off by UMNOputras for the benefit of less than 10 percent of the populace!

In fact, the sheninagans at Petronas would have multiplied since the departure of Hassan Merican (pinched now by our southern neighbour) as CEO as I hear from media grapevine that he was a no-nonsense man of integrity and had it not been for his stewardship, much more would have been plundered from the nation’s wealthiest economic entity!

Had the national oil corporation been managed properly and more openly, the Malaysian citizenry would have enjoyed annual bonuses like what the Singapore government through its state investment units has been doing annually – to help those most needful the maximum and in a declining graduated scale as the recipients move up the salary/income scales.

Malaysia Chronicle