Finally....Our "Angkasawan" Project Is Succesful!!!

Yahoooo!!! We have finally succeeded in launching our “Angkasawan” programme by launching our fuel price and inflation rate into outer space. Our fuel price and inflation rate skyrocketed so high within such a short time that even we are able to feel the scorching heat in our hearts. That's right! The scorching heat which infuriates us so much that we want to burn down the federal government.



I think most of us have already known that the cost of living most revolves around the price of the crude oil. This is because petroleum and diesel are one of the essential materials needed to operate our daily operations and businesses. For example, we need natural gas for cooking, petroleum and diesel to operate vehicles, bitumen for making road pavements, etc. Whenever the price of crude oil increases, the cost of living will also increase. Therefore, we can conclude that our cost of living is almost directly proportional to the price of crude oil. That means that the higher the price of crude oil, the higher is the cost of living. Price of Crude Oil : Cost of Living.



The several increments in the price of oil over these few years have certainly caused a significant impact in our daily life. The price of crude oil has increased in a meagre amount each time the government decided to do so. Therefore, we only felt the impact of the increments as something similar to a mosquito bite. However, as these meagre increments started to build up, the harmless mosquito bites have begun to develop into a malignant tumour which is beginning to threaten our lifestyles.

After several increments in the price of crude oil by the government, we are starting to feel the impact of the increment especially by the low and middle-class wage earners. Almost all the price of the items essential for us to survive such as grocery items, electricity and water has increased significantly. Services which rely greatly on petroleum or diesel to operate such as bus and taxi fares, aviation fares, and lorry services have also increased. Since the cost of transporting people and goods has increased, the cost to operate the business will also increase. This will then lead to the increase of price of goods and raw materials. When the price of raw materials increases, other products that are made from these raw materials will also become more expensive. To simplify the situations, the changes in crude oil will set off a series of chain reaction that will eventually affect the consumers.

Each time the government decides to increase the price of petroleum and diesel, they will pacify the anger of the public by blaming the volatility of the global price of crude oil. However, I’m still not convinced by how the increase in the global price can affect Malaysia which is a net-exporter of crude oil. These are the list of things which still puzzle me now and what I believe most Malaysians are also wondering about.

1. If Malaysia is a net-exporter of crude oil, then Petronas will gain more profit by being able to sell crude oil to foreign countries at a higher price due to the increase in the global price of crude oil. Am I right?



2. If Petronas maintains the price of domestic petroleum and diesel, Petronas should still be able to garner a higher profit despite the rise in the global price of crude oil. It’s is logical because if Petronas can make a profit by selling domestic petroleum and diesel at a lower price before, why can’t it do the same thing now? There isn’t any significant increase in the cost of production of petroleum, is there?



3. Therefore, the statement issued by the government saying that Petronas will go bust if the government continues to subsidies the price of petroleum and diesel is false, isn’t it?
   
   
4. Why do you think that Najib said that the government would go bankrupt if they lower the price of domestic petroleum and diesel as what the opposition party proclaimed they would do if they won in the general election? Do you think what he said is true?
   
   
5. If Malaysia truly is an oil-producing country, why does it depend on the global price of crude oil when it is selling petroleum and diesel to its own people? We are not importing crude oil from foreign countries.
   
   
6. Malaysia is an oil-producing country. So, it should be able to determine the price of its own crude oil when it comes to selling it domestically, am I right? (“This is my oil. So, I can sell at what price I want”)



7. Does the government want to increase the price of the domestic petroleum and diesel simply because it does not have sufficient funds in order to complete the billion-ringgit project that was planned initially such as the Iskandar Development Region and the construction of a second bridge connecting Penang and Kedah? Is it due to the mismanagement of funds? For example, the opposition MPs at Kedah who are now questioning the former MPs on how did the allocation fund of RM80million for a year is used up in merely a few months.
   

In an attempt to alleviate the impact of rise in petroleum and diesel prices, the government set up a few measures which I think are quite useless. They promised that vehicles with a certain engine capacity will get a rebate when they pay their road tax at the end of the year. They will also be given a reduction in road tax. Even so, consumers are only able to get these benefits when they pay their road tax after a year when their road taxes expire. How does the government expect us to survive one year with the inflation rate so high? The government also advised us to change our lifestyles in order to assimilate with the rising cost of living. Well, they don’t have to worry about this matter because we do it even if they don’t tell us too. The question is how many times the government wants us to change our lifestyle. How many times to we need we need to degrade our lifestyles? Most of us are already quite impoverished from the beginning. Do they want us to change our lifestyles until we have to eat yam as our staple food like what happened when the Japanese subjugated Malaya? The cost of living and owning a car is so high now. By the time, I graduate and procured my diploma, I might need to resort to cycling as my main means of transportation. The minimum wage for degree holders now would not be sufficient for a decent lifestyle in a few years time.




Pheeww, luckily the government did not really proceed with the "Angkasawan" plan. That would cost us a few more billions which would lead to a higher increment of the petroleum and diesel price. Now, I welcome anybody to come and answer the questions on this post. In fact, I challenged anyone who is able to do so, especially the government to answer those mind-boggling questions that have been puzzling me. I heard that the government have even set up an IT team to answer all the allegations placed by bloggers. Now would be a good time for them to start working if you want the people to vote for you in the future. This is not something to be treated with levity as this is about our standard of living which is now deteriorating. So, what if the economy is getting better. That only means that the rich is getting richer but the poor is getting poorer. If that happens, then the New Economy Policy has failed. The non-bumiputras would have been marginalised for nothing.

Good vs Bad

There are many achievements made by the government lately which became a hot topic among the gazette lately. Among these achievements is the launching of our first astronaut into outer space, text book loan scheme made available to all students, etc. Many people seem to be very supportive of what the government has done lately. I on the other hand have my own opinion. Don’t jump into conclusions and make abrupt assumptions if you are reading this post because I’m not trying to spread any slanderous ideas or defame the government. I just opine that some actions that the government made are good for the citizens and Malaysia while some might not be the best option for the country.

Let’s start with the achievement that I opine is a wise decision which deserves compliment from all of the Malaysians. I’m sure all of the students in Malaysia rejoiced when they heard that starting from next year onwards all the students in Malaysia will not need textbooks anymore as the textbook loan scheme will be made available to all students regardless the amount of income of the family. This is really a wonderful step to improve our education system. This should alleviate the burdens of impoverished students who are unable ineligible to get the textbook loan scheme either because he or she is an immigrant or because the textbook stock is limited. Even so, I’m sure that there also many students who prefer buying their own textbooks if they really use them to do their revision considering the advantages having your own textbooks. When you buy your own textbooks, you can do whatever you want with your textbook. You won’t need to be afraid of sketching it or damaging it as you are not obliged to pay for it if you damaged it or lost it. There are so many thing that you can do to the textbook that you own to help you to improve your revision. For example: you can highlight the keywords in the notes of your textbooks and you can also jot down extra notes during class. I think that one should not be afraid to fork a few hundred ringgits to buy textbooks because they are one of the best and reliable sources of knowledge when compared to other revision books. One should not be thrifty when it comes to knowledge as they are also a type of worthy investment for our future. People who prefer using textbooks to other revision books in the market should have realised that some of the notes in certain revision books are incomplete while some other have additional notes that are not in our syllabus. If you bought the wrong revision book, you will encounter some problems when revising. I’m telling you this because I myself have encountered this problem before. Plus, reading different types of revision books at the same time can also get you confused because their styles are different from one another. Here are some of the books that I regret buying and I strictly recommend other not to buy also. Do not believe in what the publishers usually claim such as “We are the no.1 publisher in the country” or the comments from teachers that are printed on the back of their book because normally they would only choose the compliments out of all the comments by the teachers.

Below are the books that I have blacklisted:

Don't trust the award printed at the front of the page. This book does not deserve the award.

If you want the formulae to solve your maths questions, you can refer to your textbook.

Instead of making it easier for you to understand Biology, this book makes it harder.

Don't believe what they say. These teachers are probably bribed.

After considering all the advantages of having a textbook, I would recommend students to buy their own textbooks if possible unless you really cannot afford to buy them. Since the textbook loan scheme will be made available to all students starting next year, most book stores such as “Popular” have removed their textbooks from their shelves. So, it would be a little difficult to buy textbooks next year.

Now let us proceed to the next agenda. A while ago, I was being more of supportive citizen, now is my turn to be a critic. While everybody is cheering for the launch of our first astronaut into space, I was not happy about it. I don’t criticizing the first launch because the first RM3.42 billion cost of training and transport was sponsored by Russia. I was referring to the plan of second launch of our astronaut into outer space again. I don’t think our country should be involved in any space research or activities yet. May be I would advocate this project after we reached the year 2020 but not now. Keep in mind that our country is still a DEVELOPING COUNTRY and not a DEVELOPED COUNTRY. That RM3.42 billion budget can be used on so many sectors and fields to improve our country, our nation. Does our country really have the capabilities and technology to send our own astronauts to outer space? The answer is obvious! No!!! We don’t even have our own control centre to monitor the development at space. We don’t even have the technology to build a spacecraft. The satellites that our country launched into outer space were built by other countries. Our country still doesn’t have the basic necessities needed to indulge in space exploration. Before we should even think about space exploration, we should first use the public funds wisely to develop the country especially the rural areas in Malaysia such as Sabah, Sarawak, Terengganu and Kelantan. Instead of using the public funds to provide our country with space exploration technology, why don’t we use the money to provide our universities with better infrastructures and facilities? Do you know that our universities rank lower than 300 among all the universities in the world? That means that our universities are inferior to many other universities in the world. How are we supposed to compete internationally in terms of education? That huge sum of money should also be used to increase the salaries of the public servants such as teachers, police officers, etc. I do really pity our teachers. Some of them have so many impressive degrees and diplomas but the wages they receive every month are even less than the salary that my father receive. Some of them have taught for so many years yet their salaries are only around RM2000. The situation aggravates when the government prohibits teachers from working as part-time tutors to earn extra income without permission. The government fears that the teachers will neglect their duty at school if they are too busy with their part-time tutoring. This isn’t the right thing to do. Think about it rationally. How does a teacher with a miniscule salary of RM2000 can cope with highly-cost lifestyle in the city? Everything sold in the market is getting more expensive every year. According to a newspaper report, our living expenditures have gone up by 120% since the 1999. The prices of our basic necessities such as petrol, food, flour, water and electricity have soared so high over the past few years but their income still remains the same. So, the government should raise their salaries instead of preventing them from giving part-time tutoring. In my opinion, our teachers should be given higher salaries because their occupation is a noble job which will shape the fundamental pillars of our nation. Those fundamental pillars are our youths who will determine the future of our country.