Fuel

The price of petrol in our country has been fluctuating since the middle of this year. I still remember vividly the time when the government suddenly increased the price to RM2.7 per litre. It's insane and unbelievable! I remembered it was a Tuesday, because that day me, james and swarna were having dinner at sri petalling. When we met the traffic jam, we thought it was due to pasar malam. But apparently not. People on that night were pretty reckless and seemed rushing to somewhere. Believe me, i was quite scared at the moment, it looked like armageddon was approaching. And the worst part was, i had no clue of what's happening.

So when i reached back at my house, i quickly went online and checked out what's messing up the society. Well, after seeing the news highlight, everything seemed so clear to me. Then i received call from my mum, and she said the lines at petrol kiosk were so long till she rather stayed at home.

Nobody would be happy after the news was out, i assumed. Even i was pretty furious at the government that time. Why must they do this? Shouldn't government take good care of the citizens? .... Well, there must be some reasons behind it that forced the government to do so. After reading their explanation, it sounded perfectly reasonable. The international price for petrol had increased tremendously, so our government couldn't cover the subsidy so much. The most they could gave was 30 cents per litre. Furthermore, they carried out another plan for compensation, whch was road tax rebate.

At last, the raging fire of citizens had cooled off momentarily...

Then the world economy was getting unstable, after the Reymann Brothers declared bankruptcy in september. So as the international price of petrol, it dropped drastically till it reached around USD90+ per bucket. Since the price had dropped, our government also reduced the price bit by bit according to the international standard, till now.

My concern is, when the government announced to increase the fuel price, people were so angry and mad with the government. But when the government reduced the price, nobody expressed their gratitude to the government and just assumed the government was doing what they should be doing.

According to some politic critics, they said the government shouldn't even give any subsidy at the first place. Because of this act, citizens totally rely on this privilege and will regard the subsidy as something they deserve. At the same time, the government shouldn't control and standardize the price of petrol in the whole nation. Instead, they should set a ceiling price and let all the petroleum companies to compete with each another. To further elaborate this point, the critic said most of the foreign countries had stopped controlling the fuel's price, and it's the petrol companies' decision to determine the price. And this will ultimately benefit the consumers.

In my opinion, if the government considers the critic's proposal, it would be a better way in adjusting the price of petrol. By doing so, the citizen wouldn't be blaming the government if the international price reaches sky high. At the same time, it could de-cultivate the reliance of subsidy among the people.