Friday, August 22, 2008

Oh, Dollah...You are My Master and My Savior!..?

Everyone at office was shocked to hear that the price of fuel will be reduced by 15 sen to RM 2.55 from tomorrow onwards. It was much earlier than the expected announcement on the 31st. And it's the only time in 5 years that we hear such news.

First of all, I don't really think that the 15sen reduction will do much. Too much damage has already been done by the drastic decision that Dollah Badawi made in June. Dropping 15 sen means that people saved only about $6-10 per week on petrol that's all. There is indeed nothing to cheer about. Unless, if they are talking about drastic reduction to say $2.10, as Big Dog mentioned the other day, then it will be something that everyone can cheer about. This measure simply will not do much good and economy could go from bad to worst since the ringgit is predicted to go back to the 2006 levels, at 3.5X something instead of 3.10

Second thing I kept asking of is the timing. The timing is coincided with the upcoming Permatang Pauh by-elections and I too agree with Anil's (saw him sometime back in K.L) statement that it is a politically motivated thing. Why do that now instead of 31st? When they increased the price, oil was at just $125 per barrel. So there's nothing much to cheer off...The RON 92 has a larger price drop to $2.40. However, RON 92 petrol is lower in grade and the government is indirectly telling motor users to use RON 92 for their cars, but the kind of petrol is not very good for cars.

Frankly, this is one of the last minute measures, to entice the rakyat so that they can say that Dollah and the government are their saviours and their master. Just as what MCA and MIC did pre-March 8. The master-servant relationship; and that is why the component parties got whacked badly because of the connection. The ones that BN are banking on are the rural Malay folk, which blindly votes for them because much of their help were provided by the government.

I think everyone is made to say (from this decision) that Dollah Badawi is their savior / master. When I read the Testament graphic novels (that my friend Simon had), I was clearly reminded of the parrallels between the novel and the real country situation.

Looking at that, Pakatan can actually leverage on this situation by possibly reducing it further to $1.85, which is much lower than the 2006-2008 levels, although slightly.

Speaking of Pematang, I think some of the bloggers left for there. If...if Pete repeats the feat as he did in Bagan / Prai, then the outcome could also go to Anwar's favor. Allow me to reiteriate that the nation's economy still remains in trouble and if Abdullah Badawi does not leave by October, then the nation's economy will plunder into abyss! (yes a reminder from Matthias Chang as well!)

1 comment:

  1. Great! That means we have more money to buy pirated DVDs at SS2! :)

    ~ Edmund

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