Malaysia is a net energy exporting country.
Energy prices are skyrocketing because of the War in Iran.
Malaysia therefore, should be profiting immensely from the Iran war induced global fuel crisis.
Not only regular citizens, even international investment agencies like Nomura has identified Malaysia as one of the few countries in the world that will benefit from the global energy crisis.
According to largest investment bank and brokerage in Japan, Malaysia is among the few economies expected to benefit from rising oil prices and strong domestic demand despite heightened geopolitical risks between US/Israel and Iran, says Japan’s largest investment bank and brokerage.
But instead of asking us to celebrate our good fortune, our government is asking us to brace for difficult times.
Why?
Nobody knows, but everybody is talking about it.
Instead of telling us " Don't worry dear Malaysians, the energy crisis is bad for the world, but good for us - while the rest of the world will be having a difficult time, Malaysians can expect better days ahead, " our government is inexplicably conditioning us to expect difficult times ahead, as if we lost billions instead of making billions because of this crisis.
Anwar is telling us that we can only expect fuel subsidies until May. The government, he says, can't afford to maintain the fuel subsidies, which has risen from 700 million to 4 billion ringgit a month, as if he is expecting us to understand why fuel prices might have to be raised soon.
Anthony Loke is telling us that the government is operating on crisis mode, as if he is conditioning us to prepare for the worse as well.
“As mentioned by the prime minister this morning, we must adapt to the fact that we are actually in a crisis. This is not something to be taken lightly or joked about; it is a very serious matter.
“Even though at this moment our lights are still on and petrol stations are operating normally without supply concerns, this is something Malaysians cannot take lightly because the impact is felt worldwide.
“Our existing supply will not be interrupted until May, but if the war continues, we cannot guarantee that the supply will not be disrupted. This is something we all need to pay attention to.
“Each of us has a responsibility to ensure we survive and do not waste resources. No resource is unlimited,” he said.
“The government not only needs to prepare itself… It also needs to prepare the public,” he said.
Petronas Dagang, a government linked company, is giving us a long winded and bewildering story about how we might actually be an energy importing country despite being an energy exporting country, as if it wants us to understand why have to accept that we are losing, at the point when we are supposed to be winning.
Civil servants have also been told to work from home starting this month and the people's fuel subsidies have been cut from 300L to 200L, as if we are being gradually eased into understandinhg why we are all going to have to face hard times in the days to come.
What the government is conspicuously failing to tell us however, is how many billions did our country make because fuel prices is above 100 dollar per barrel and how the windfall is being spent ?
Since it not being spent on the people, where is it going ?
Is PETRONAS hogging it ? Did corruption eat it ? Or does the government not know where it went ?
A couple of days ago, Anwar declared that the government is intending to wage a war on the fake news that is being spread about the energy crisis.
Personally, I don't know whether the government is genuinely interested in seeing the people rightly informed about the energy crisis or whether they just don't want the people to ask questions about where our oil profits went, but if our government believes that just by preventing people from talking about the subject, the people will stop wondering where did the country's oil profit go, it is going to be sorely disappointed.
The question in the people's mind is so elementary, so basic so simple, that even high school drop outs are asking it.
Despite being such a simple, elementary and basic question, Anwar and his government has woefully inadequate in providing an answer.
Because his government has done everything else but answer such a simple, elementary and basic question, the people can't help but incline our mind to believe in two possible reasons.
The first is that Anwar's administration can't answer it, because it is afraid of implicating itself.
The second is that they can't answer it , because they truly don't know the answer .
If it is the first case that is true, it means the government is corrupt and if it is the second, it means it is abysmally incompetent.
Either way, it doesn't bode well for Anwar's government at all.
At the end of the day, Anwar just needs to answer two simple question .
1. How many billions in profit are we making because of the spike in energy prices ?
2. Where are all these extra billions going ?
If he doesn't answer this in a simple and confidence inspiring manner, while expecting the people to endure serious difficulties, at a time when the country is making huge profits, I truly think he and his colleagues should pack up their things, because I am quite convinced that they might have to move out of Putrajaya soon.
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