Gifts from a caring government ?

In March 1st 2006, the price of petrol shot up by almost 20%. In May 25th 2006, the government has announced that Electricity rate shall be increased by approximately 12%. As usual, the standard reasons are being recycled to explain the “unavoidable” price increase.

The government has explained that 60% of the consuming households will not be affected by the price increase because the electricity consumption is quite minimal. “We care for the poors”. So now, I am the well-off balance of the 40%. Our caring government now said it is justified for people like me to pay higher rate to compensated the losses incurred by TNB !

I like to say this to you. I am a hardworking Malaysian. To overcome higher overheads due to increasing expenses forced upon me such as higher petrol price, assessment rates, lower take home pay, and other higher determinants of cost of livings, I end up having to work longer hours and most of the time, up to two or three o'clock in the morning. Naturally I have to incur higher electricity charges. So now, the power that be has concurred that imposition of higher prices is fair on hardworking people like me, simply because I choose to work harder and I am in the minority group ( remember, I am in the 40% group).

Look like the best solution cut down electricity costs is, maybe it is not such as a bad idea, by implementing the following measures :

• Force a half working day policy and make all employee take 50% pay cut
• Go to bed early at 8:00pm to have some fun on the bed rather working past mid-night to contribute to the economic well beings of others.

Come to think of it, I felt like a sitting duck and easy target. It is always okay and patriotic for big corporations to raise prices to cover losses and operational inefficiencies. But it sound like a dirty word and unpatriotic for small businesses to raise prices to cover overheads.

You want level playing fields ? Now let's play fair. Stop echoing your sickening patriotic statements to me when you don't mean it. You want hardworking Malaysians to be prudent in managing their expenses ? Why not ask the GLC to show us how prudent they are ? I have enough of all these double standards and price discriminations.

Everything else being equal, look like the water, sewerage charges, municipal assessment, telecommunication charges, etc will also likely to be increased soon using the same standard recycles reasons.

Well, what else can I said........ ?

If you asked those who are not affected, of course, the tariff increases are justified because ultimately it is the 40% of us that contribute to the bulk of Malaysian economy, are ultimately going to suffer. Maybe it is about time we starts removing the air-conditioning units from our home and office and replace them with hand held fans and use candles instead of florescence lights.

And, “We have the poors in Mind” ? This statement supposed to make me feel guilty for my unwilingness to pay higher prices ?

I am not disputing the rights of TNB to increase the electricity tariffs. By all means, please increase the tariffs if that is an unavoidable things to do. But please justify the actions meaningfully, and please refrained from using price differentiation to punished sitting ducks like me. How much more harder you want hardworking Malaysians to bear with all these economic inefficiencies of the national resources ?

Namo Amithaba Buddha