I walked into a petrol station along a busy road in Penang last night and engaged in some small talk with the cashier. I asked him what kind of impact the petrol price hike has had on his collection.
“In ringgit terms, it has gone up,” he replied. “But in terms of litres sold, there has been a drop.”
Hmm, so there has been a drop in consumption, at least at this station, I thought to myself.
There has been a lot of talk about people boycotting the petrol pumps – you can see this being circulated via email. Only snag is how long can people sustain this?
So it’s time for pedal power! Hey, if Paris can do it, why not KL, Penang, Ipoh, Johor Bharu, Kuching and Kota Kinabalu? It will do wonders to turn our cities greener and quieter. We need not follow the business model in Paris. All we need to do is press our state governments to come up with dedicated cycle lanes, shaded by trees to keep off the blazing sun.
Oil price hike protest in Ipoh (Source: Unknown; forwarded via email)
So Petronas and the Malaysian government says subsidies distort the market. Of course, the withdrawal of subsidies will encourage conservation of a scarce resource – which is a good thing. It might even reduce pollution and congestion. Roads were noticeablly less congested in parts of Penang and KL today. Traffic on the Penang Bridge heading to the island at 5.20pm – peak time – was smooth; the usual bottleneck after the toll plazas, as the mutiple lanes narrow down to two lanes, was gone.
But has the government given much thought to the impact of the removal of oil subsidies on the poor – and even large segments of the middle-class, who are rapidly moving down to the ranks of the poor in terms of real purchasing power?
One key question has not been answered: why a sudden complete removal and not a gradual phasing out? Come on, tell us how much profit Petronas made for the year ended 31 March 2008. The figures should be available by now, even if the annual report isn’t ready.
A modern tram in Grenoble, France – Photo credit: Wikipedia (copyleft)
The tram initiative is building up momentum. So far, 25 29 30 31 bloggers and websites have signed on to the campaign.
Civil society activists have articulated their views too. Here’s what some people are saying:
Heritage writer Khoo Salma Nasution:
Heritage writer Khoo Salma Nasution noted that the Penang Island Municipal Council was the first local government to introduce electric trams in the inner city in the early part of the last century.
“People think the tram is a thing of the past, but they are wrong because it is actually the thing of the future,” she said.
“It is clean, energy saving and user-friendly not to mention fast, efficient and also cheap.”
Some more light on this mysterious subsidy thing:
Most of the country’s oil fields contain low-sulfur, high quality “sweet” crude. Malaysia exports the majority of its oil to Japan, Thailand, Singapore and South Korea.
Now that oil prices have gone up by 41 per cent and diesel by even more, our planners should scrap the proposed second cross-channel road link for Penang.
If the RM4.8 billion second Penang bridge (all 24km of it, 17km over water) sounded like a bad idea before the oil price hike, today it sounds like a terrible idea in the light of higher fuel prices.
Let’s try this out for size to see how much it will cost the average commuter every month to use the bridge.
Before the general election, they told us that we would become a net importer of oil by 2011.
Now, with the sharp oil price increase, they tell us we can remain a net exporter of oil until 2014-2015. You see, domestic demand will slow down. Some of us might turn to bicycles – and even live to tell the tale, given the notorious absence of bicycle lanes on our roads.
Excerpt from Reuters:
“It will be postponed if the demand does not grow at the rate that it should grow,” (Petronas) Chief Executive Mohd Hassan Merican was quoted as saying by state news agency Bernama.
He added: “If the rate is reduced from six percent (demand growth annually) to four percent, it will be extended by three to four years to 2014 or 2015.”
For the last few days, I have been trying to figure out what exactly this oil “subsidy” is that the government is talking about, which it cannot tahan any longer and so it has to collect more money from the people.
What exactly is this “subsidy”? Everyone is talking about it without really knowing what this subsidy is all about.
Who is paying this “subsidy” to whom? I mean, actual cash payment. Is Petronas actually paying cash to anyone for this “subsidy”? Is the government paying cash to Petronas?
I was stuck in a massive jam after I went to pick up a friend from the Penang airport. No matter how hard I tried to avoid the petrol stations, it seemed like the whole of Penang was out on the streets looking for oil, before the price hike at midnight.
While listening to the radio, I heard one caller phoning in to the deejay and saying something to the effect of, “Here I am stuck in a jam on the way to a petrol station to fill up. I wish I could stay at home like my friend Mr Abdullah and shake legs cos he doesn’t need to go out and fill up.” It took me a couple of moments to realise that he was speaking about the PM! Even the deejay responded, “I would rather be like your friend Mr Abdullah”!
This, then, is the shape of things to come. A 40 per cent hike in petrol prices plus a 20 per cent rise in electricity tariffs. Welcome to the free market and the “brave new Malaysia”.
High above the Penang Bridge
For the longest time now, there has been major ongoing work on the three-lane centre-span of the Penang Bridge. The work seems never-ending. Many motorists are puzzled about the long-term closure of the far left lanes on the centre span.