Campaigning for Cheaper Petrol - Who benefits?

Recently Malaysia had its 13^th Elections. The Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition retained power with a smaller majority than previously. It basically lost in the urban and suburban areas and kept its popularity in the rural areas. From the number of voters, it had lost. But BN won in the number of actual Parliamentary seats contested.

There has been a backlash stating that the Chinese had turned their backs on BN. This may have some truth in it but in trying to dissect this problem I met someone who said that BN has lost support in an overall sense. There are many reasons for this.

One issue that was brought up was the price of petrol. Whilst Malaysia is the 27^th oil producer in the world, IT IS THE third largest oil exporter of oil in the world. Very good. What do Malaysians benefit from this? Well, Malaysia has the 11^th cheapest petrol retail price in the world. Isn't that cheap enough? I suppose it isn't to most. 

I met an educated Malay man who said that the kampong folk are suffering due to the ‘high petrol prices’. I argued that the kampong folk voted for BN. It is the urban folk who are complaining that petrol prices are high.

He mentioned that internet penetration was lower in the kampong. Hence the lack of ‘correct and true’ information that allowed the rural voted to continue supporting BN. This vicious circle of fact after fact will continue until our argument will before we know it lead to the price of chicken in Kuala Lumpur versus the price of lamb in Khazakstan.

But again, who uses a whole lot of our petrol? I believe it is the urban folks. We have 20-40km commutes (because they cannot seem to buy closer to where they work or sacrifice and live in a smaller house closer to work) and lots of traffic jams over the 3-10km commutes (with almost no traffic jams) in the rural areas (where most live quite close to their work place).

Most rural folk can survive on less than a hundred Ringgit of petrol per month (short commute, less traffic, etc), whereas, the urban folk spend an average of RM300 per month on petrol.

Now add the higher cost of cooked food (a lot of urbanites are lazy to cook their own – hence increased food bills) and other incidentals like intra-city tolls as well as other so called necessities like broadband bills (which the government subsidizes via a RM500 tax rebate for working folk – also not enough), lots of smartphone usage, tablets and other luxuries that come with bills.

Oh, add the fact that most of the urbanites want nice fancy cars (that are not Proton or Perodua- which are affordable but lack street credibility and reputation) that is actually beyond their means. They end up loaning more than they can afford to pay.

 I don’t see the Kampung folk wanting Maseratis or Ferraris or even Mercedes. They want transport. They don’t really care what brand it is. I know a few Makciks and Pakciks who live in the Kampung who end up buying Protons and Perodua even though they have bank accounts in excess of RM250,000. Of course they bought their cars cash. Can you? I also see Pakciks and Makciks who still drive their old Proton Saga from 1990 in fine fettle who aren’t complaining much also. I also see those that go round on a Kapchai. And they do not complain about petrol being expensive.

It is those in and around Kuala Lumpur that do the most talking. Whaddya expect? The cost of living in and around urban centers is indeed more than in the Kampungs. So what happens? Harp and sing about it at political rallies. It’s a sure fire solution to garner the votes of the city folk. Sing lower petrol, food, car prices and everyone will vote for you. AND LOGIC GOES OUT THE WINDOW. 

So the question of wanting cheaper petrol is actually an urban problem and not a rural problem. This is why the call for cheaper petrol is a very sellable point in the Pakatan Rakyat’s campaign even though the real reason is that is if you cannot afford so much luxuries, live within your means lah. It isn’t that petrol is expensive; it’s the fact that you are not living within your means.

BUT Malaysia is an OIL PRODUCER. So? Do you think the oil will last forever? We Malaysian sure like subsidies don't we? Well folks, the bad news is that according to International Energy Agency (IEA) Malaysia will be a nett importer BY 2017. Some even claimed that this could happen earlier or later (later if more oil fields are discovered). But eventually the oil will run out or the economy gets so good that oil consumption goes up from increased energy outputs from factories, more cars etc. So you still want petrol subsidy then? Hello? Wake up lah.

And what is the solution? Live within your means. The price of petrol shouldn't be the grounds you place your vote on. That is all. Think about it. 

This is only one small topic. I haven’t talked about corruption, cronyism or other things that ends with '…ion' or '…ism' yet. Stay tuned folks.