just minishorts.

Now in my peabrained attempts to understand the fuel price increase situation, these messages seem clear: right now what we have is a situation where we have been informed via various inputs (the local government is just one of them, the whole world is also telling us that the fuel price increase is a global issue), that we have to swallow the bitter pill. And then you have TV news showing a very tired Pak Lah going on TV to say that this is not something that we like to do. Two ministers say two contradicting things - the PM goes on to say the subsidies will be lifted immediately, then Shahrir goes on to say no it will be in August. They ban sale of petrol to foreigners, then they say for Singaporeans the ban is effective on the 9th, then suddenly the ban is lifted.

Wah doesn't it seem as if the government is confused? Doesn't it seem as if these people don't know what they're doing? I was watching TV3 last night where they interviewed some Thai citizens who were filling up their petrol tanks, and you should have seen their faces - it was like, 'Ha ha ha of course lah we come and take advantage of you… but we are thankful to Malaysia.'

There was this Singaporean lady who said it pretty well, 'Kalau Malaysia nak tingkatkan harga minyak, dan kalau kerajaan Malaysia kata orang asing tak boleh isi minyak kita tidak patutlah bising ke apa, kita pun faham sebab orang Malaysia ada hak untuk jaga negara sendiri. Tapi kalau harga di Malaysia murah dan orang asing pun boleh beli, tentulah kita akan ambil kesempatan.'

That stupid banning and unbanning thing is pretty much this year's most WTF thing that the government has ever done. And it pretty much sums up how competent the people up there are.

But never mind that. I wanna talk about some MPs and the protest battalions they are forming even as you read this. As much as I have a big problem with price hikes and the impending destruction of Malaysia, I have a bigger problem with the way Malaysians have been accustomized to handling crisis. And this is the crisis: the fuel price has increased, it is reflected in the price of petrol going up, the price of diesel going up and the price of gas going up. Probably one of the biggest biggest businesses in the company is the first to react to the situation, and they told the country yesterday, 'Because the cost of my resource, gas, which produces about 68% of the power I sell to you, has more than doubled (RM6.40 per mmbtu to RM14.31 per mmbtu), therefore I will have to increase the price of the power that I sell to you.'

That is a solution that the business entity called Tenaga Nasional Berhad has put in place to address the crisis.

In the same way, other business entities will be going back to their accounts now, and you will hear of increase in price everywhere, from the rational (if my business is totally reliant on fuel as a resource, it is natural that I will have to hike up the price of my goods significantly), to the irrational (you know I sell drinks like coffee and tea, and they're not cheap to make you know, so well, that's why instead of RM1.20 you now have to pay RM1.70 for a cup).

In fact, we are ALL demanding the same, because we know that fuel (in whatever form we use) is a resource for us. So that is why you will be asking the same of your employee, and that is why I will be hoping the same from my boss, 'Boss, prices of things gone up, petrol price increase, salary increase can boh? Petrol allowance can give or not? Please? Berat lah… beban.'

These are natural reactions.

A protest is NOT a natural reaction, because it doesn't look to provide a solution. OK wait, let me rephrase that. If a protest is MADE with the presentation of PLAUSIBLE solutions to the crisis, then by all means go ahead. But if protests are are made to the tune of, 'Government not fair, Government not competent, why is it that we are oil producing country but we pay so much? Why is it like that? Rakyat suffer? Help BN government is useless, let's vote Pakatan Rakyat,' then it doesn't seem very effective, don't you?

If the Pakatan Rakyat can come up with more than, 'The Government is hasty, the Government's fuel hikes are incomprehensible, are too much, are an excessive burden to the people… ' then at least we can see signs that Pakatan Rakyat is kind'of making sense here. Instead what I seem to keep getting is, 'If you vote the Pakatan Rakyat, guarantee price go down, guarantee people will share the riches, guarantee bla bla…'

Right now it doesn't seem that Pakatan Rakyat is providing solutions along with its populist messages. And if you asked me, I feel that PR's messages of guaranteeing price will low currently look rather ridiculous against the occuring context.

Of course we have to give PR the benefit of the doubt, because being in the communications line tells me that when people want to push a certain agenda, public messages can be churned out in a way that confuses people. I would like very much to consider Datuk Seri Idris Jala's view that the whole price hike issue is a result of speculation and future trading as valid, and I might even believe that this whole recession thing is some huge fiasco thrown upon the nations of the world while some very evil bastards run away and get obscene rich. I watch too many shows like Heroes and Prison Break where they have conspiracy theories and background dictators like 'The Company', can?

So here in my pea-brained attempts to act like a genius, I'd like to consider the origin of the word: oil subsidy. How the hell did it get into our everyday vocabulary? While I understand that prices of necessary consumables are subsidized, when did the oil that we purchase became subsidized purchases? I don't want to blame anyone here, but there is this thought nagging here that I can't seem to understand, because we do produce oil, and even if we don't use most of the oil that we produce and we use imported oil, shouldn't we be already making some kind of money from the oil we produce and sell (at market rates)? Another part of me also suspects that if the EPU could have come up with agreements as indecent as the Power Purchase Agreements, it wouldn't be blasphemous to consider that they are other 'power purchase agreements', kan?

Conspiracy theory #1: what if, even though crude oil is now USD 130 per barrel, we have some sealed long term agreements to sell oil to certain clients at low low USD 30 per barrel (made in some long-ago attempt to earn a quick buck)?

Far fetched or not?

And hey, I think like you too. This whole thing about 'oil prices going up globally and we are hard hit', and government has to stop subsidizing on oil, doesn't quite make sense. If I owned an office block and I decided to rent out 30% of my offices whilst renting the rest to my friends and family at very special (perhaps even cost) rates, I can't say I'm subsidizing my family, can I? If I own a restaurant, and sold the food to my customers at RM100 a set meal, but allow my friends and family a very special price of RM50 for the same set, I cannot say I'm subsidizing their meals right?

But never mind that.

Let's go back to the solution creating process and the protests against the hike. Protests MUST be effective. They need to send a clear message with a purpose. A dog cannot just bark and bark to its master and expect the master to know he is hungry. And a very hungry dog will find ways to get his food. In the same way these messages from the MPs have to contain MORE than populist driven messages, otherwise they will sound fishily like the tried and useless methods of the ruling party, i.e. promise first, then break the promise. Let to go on for too long, the PR leaders will soon be nothing more than opportunists trying to grab a chance to sit in a position of power, but unwilling to take risks and provide the people with the plan for an effective government.

It is like how, when the PAS - PKR - DAP coalition won the five states, they took forever to form their governments. And in this situation, a golden opportunity to grab for Pakatan Rakyat, shouldn't we the Rakyat, demand more of the Pakatan Rakyat who has promised us so much?

HOW CAN WE BE OKAY with them just calling for a protest without requiring them to provide a solution?

…

And hey, what can we expect kan? Almost all of them, the louder ones especially, are bloody politicians. Shouldn't have trusted them in the first place.

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