My "BITE" on the Petrol Price Hike

"Hallo, where you at", I hear a distressed voice at the end of the line.

"Hmmm, still waiting for the bus to work, since the fuel hike, more people are turning to public transportation," i lament while unconsciously pouting my lips. Thinking of my unpleasant journey ahead where i have to squeeze into a bus full of mixed perfumes and odors.

"You know what! Bastards came and fixed parking meters in my office area yesterday! They must have done it at night because they knew people would go into a fit!" Bernard sounds exasperated

i grin... On one hand, i was thinking, "wow, i never knew he didn't have to pay daily parking and thinking hahaha... now you have to feel what most people feel" but on the other hand, i felt sympathy that as of now, his expenses has just increased on a daily basis. And it's not like he has an option to not drive to work or park elsewhere since it's God forsaken Kampung Pandan. This hike in expenditure is not even an option. It's an ultimatum.

As i read through the papers everyday, with no fail there was daily opinions, complaints, verbal bashing of the government and opposition parties taking advantage to strengthen their popularity with public by posing negative opinion of the fuel hike. And i thought to myself, it's been a while but somehow, it's not getting stale. The impact is felt more than ever in fact because now people are starting to feel the side effects.

First people protested due to the anticipation. They could vision the worst case scenario that was bout to come. Vision the life changing situation and sacrifices they'd have to make to bring life back to its normal pace. So people had plenty speculate about... Then, after 2 weeks, people started experiencing the effects, while some had it under control, most experienced inconvenience. People started cutting cost in daily basic necessities.

Now is the moment where people are showing side effects. It's like a drug creeping through your veins where you have no control over where it goes and which organ it'd affect. Sure our government said, make use of the public transportation we've prepared.. Well, first things first, "YOUR" transportation lacks discipline and timing. It "ain't" great. It's there, but on a personal point of view, having to switch from using your own vehicle to using public transportation is a sacrifice and an inconvenience and not everyone can get used to. I've never been a fan of Singapore, but i applaud them for their public transportation services. They're reliable, on time, won't get you fired and won't cause an extra penny in your pocket for deodorants and oxygen tanks. Not ONE Singaporean has ever lament over their public transportation. WHat's it i hear??? ohhhhh... Singapore's small so it's easier to control?? I see.... BULLSHIT! Well, we've got more parliamentarians, and more people to pool in effort and not to mention, more funds ( IF we stop spending unneccesary moment on things like the pweety pweety Lamp posts along the Putrajaya roads which each cost RM10k.

Among all our modes of transportation, none is truly reliable. The Putra LRT perhaps is the best out of the lot but during rush hour, it DOES NOT take 10-20 minutes to get to your destination, simply because it takes you 20-30 minutes to just queue to get into the fucking lrt! And now with more people turning to public transportation??? I waited for 45 minutes today to get into a train at Bangsar lrt. From 8.05am to 8.55am. Work starts at 9am....

Our government says that if other progressing countries can pay that amount for petrol, why can't we? Well, we can if you fucking pay us what other countries are paying their professionals! our income expenditure ratio is incomparable to other progressing countries. A fresh graduate's pay in KL ranges from RM1600 to 2500. A a fresh graduate in the states earn USD2500-3000. Don't do the currency conversion. If a fresh graduate was given RM 2500-3000, i swear life would be bearable with whatever hike the government wants to impose further. Food prices are going up, petrol has gone up, now parking meters emerging ever Gawd'Damn where..Tols have increased, Word has it that in two months time electricity is increasing to RM0.30 per unit, so this will cause an approximate 30-35% increase in our bills according to our current usage.

I believe that we Malaysians complain for a good reason. We're not just stingy buggers wanting to save an extra penny. We're not too proud to take the pulic transportation because it's more classy to drive our own "kancil-proton" whatever... We've taken matters into our own hands because we know at least "WE" can trust "OURSELVES" to be reliable. Therefore, by imposing ridiculous hikes in our daily neccesities, is robbing us of our independence, and robbing us of our choice, and robbing us of our sense of responsibility ..and most importantly, robbing us of our comfort.

Some columnist say that we can use less electricity, walk more just like "ol" days in order to deal with the price hike, well, my response to that is, if you call Malaysia a progressing nation and the price hike deem fits that image, then why the hell would you ask us to go back to the past and live as cave men??