My nice little comfort zone has just been shocked to it’s core! I was preparing myself for a nice quiet day at work in the office, I got in and started off my day by reading one of the online newspapers. The headline jumped out at me, ‘Price Watch: New subsidies only for poor‘. What did that mean?!? I quickly read the article, which can be found here.

In essence, Malaysians (except for the poor) will no longer have fuel subsidies. We’ve been enjoying quite a big subsidy, only paying less than RM2 (that’s less that USD 0.65) per litre so far. The most compelling statement in the article was this:

In effect, pump prices could be more than double the current subsidised prices.

I’m one of those people who are really blessed to not have to drive so much. OK, it’s also because I really detest driving! But my office is really near, and on weekends, BF drives. But even I can see the country-wide effect that this new ruling is going to have.

Fuel prices go up, EVERYTHING goes up, most importantly, prices of food. Prices go up, and I’m sure salaries aren’t going to go up. This probably will result in crime rates going up too! *sigh*

I’ve always said that people shouldn’t complain over the fuel rates whenever the government increases the price. After all, prices in all countries are going up, so why shouldn’t the government increase it? We’ve already been blessed because the fuel rates are one of the cheapest in all countries. So, whenever it goes up, I’m grateful that although it has gone up, we still have cheap fuel. Now…? What’s going to happen to our country?

My colleagues and I were discussing it already, saying how food, airflight prices and everything is going to increase. Car pooling will come into effect more than ever before. One idea thrown around was that this is a ’scare’ tactic by the government. Right now, they’ll say that subsidies will be scrapped, causing a huge uproar in the country. Later on, they’ll say that they will continue the subsidies, but perhaps at a much lower subsidy than before. And everyone will be so thankful, that they won’t complain at the large price hike for fuel. I’m crossing my fingers that this is the case!

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