Well, supposedly the government is thinking of reducing our fuel quota further.
It used to be 300 liters. Now it is 200 liters. For now, the government has not said by how much it intends to reduce the quota further — at the moment, it is merely testing the waters by announcing that it is considering reducing the fuel quota — but from what the government has been doing and saying, we can clearly see that it is struggling to foot our fuel bill.
Before the war involving Iran started at the end of February, the government announced that it was only paying RM700 million a month for fuel subsidies.
By March, it said that its fuel subsidy bill had risen to RM3.2 billion.
By late March, it claimed that the figure had reached RM4 billion.
Today, it is saying that the bill is now RM7 billion.
Now, if you are wondering why fuel subsidies are rising at such an alarming rate when fuel prices — which have hovered at around USD105 per barrel — have remained relatively stable since the Iran war started, that is a very good question, and one that I am quite sure our government will fumble in answering, just as how it has fumbled in answering so many other questions surrounding the fuel price hike and the cost of subsidies.
Other than reducing the fuel quota, the government is also thinking of eliminating fuel subsidies for the T20 completely. Furthermore, it is considering removing the cap on diesel prices in Sabah and Sarawak — which are currently capped at RM2.15 per liter — and introducing a quota usage system for diesel in the Bornean states, similar to the quota system already being applied to RON95 usage.
Will the government’s move burden the people?
Well, judging by how MPs like Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man, Yeo Bee Yin and Lim Lip Eng are already opposing the government’s desire to remove fuel subsidies for the T20, it likely will.
According to Lim, just because you are classified as T20 does not mean you are rich.
Tuan Ibrahim has described the subsidy removal for the T20 as “unfair.”
Yeo Bee Yin’s reasoning is perhaps the most alarming — she openly said that if the T20, many of whom are business owners, are forced to pay more for fuel, they will simply pass the additional cost down, ultimately hurting the M40 and B40.
Anyway, if the government is making all these announcements before taking any concrete action merely to gauge public reaction, then let me say this to the government very clearly: let there be no doubt that if people have to suffer because fuel prices go up or fuel subsidies come down, the rakyat will blame the government.
Now, before the government starts with its usual excuse about how it is unfair for the rakyat to blame it for the fuel crisis when this is a global crisis, and that other countries are also raising fuel prices to address the problem, all I will say is this: the fuel crisis is not an unexpected event, even if it is a global one.
Any analyst with half a brain knew that a conflict involving Iran, America and Israel was bound to happen sooner or later. We all knew that the Strait of Hormuz would most likely be blockaded if such a war happened, and that such a blockade would trigger an energy crisis worldwide. We did not know this for a day or two either — we have known this for decades.
When the Gaza war started three years ago, all of us also knew that a direct conflict involving Israel, Iran and America was becoming increasingly likely. So let us not entertain this nonsense about how the government was caught unaware by this crisis when it had at least three years to prepare for it.
The role of top leadership, by the way, is to prepare for what is to come.
You do not have to cook your own food, make your own bed, drive your own car or wash your own clothes because society wants you free to think, plan and prepare for the future.
If you now say that you did not see this crisis coming, when anybody with half a brain should have seen it coming, then you are definitely unsuited for your job. Rather than having your food cooked, your bed made, your car driven and your clothes washed by others, perhaps you should instead be cooking, driving and washing clothes for other people who are actually more suited to do your job than you are.
And also, let us not talk about how we must all remain united and stand as one with the government to solve this crisis.
The government and the people are not one. It is not the people who refused to be one with the government — it is the government that refused to be one with the people.
We voted for this government because we thought that if this government won, we too would feel like winners too. But the government has made it very clear that only it is meant to feel like the winner after it won, while the rest of us should not expect to feel like winners simply because it won.
When times were favourable, this government made it very clear that that there is a difference between those who rule and those who are ruled, and that we should not be presumptuous to assume that we had the right to share in the good fortunes of those who rule, as though we were one and the same.
Now that times are becoming difficult for the government, please do not insult both your intelligence and our intelligence by suddenly coming to us and saying that we are all in this together, and that the people should therefore stand with the government as though we are one and the same.
The rule is simple. Those who are ruled will tolerate the antics of those who rule for as long as those who rule prepare for what we have to face and continue to “take care of everything.”
If those who rule did not prepare and can no longer take care of everything, then do not come to us and ask us to help you take care of everything or clean up your mess.
We already did our part - you should have done your part too.
If you failed to do your part, then don't blame us if we stop seeing the point of you ruling at all when not only do we have to endure your insufferable antics, but you also cannot be relied upon to prepare or take care of anything.
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