Stop whining … and get on with our lives

It’s about to reach the magical number of $150 per barrel and everyone is looking for reasons of “why” and the government is looking for answers to the “how” and “what”. It was getting a bit crazy in Malaysia with plans of having different pumps for foreigners i.e. only Singapore and Thailand; Malaysians smuggling and selling petrol to neighbouring countries; Malaysians protesting for the hike in fuel prices; and the list goes on. This all came about when the prices of oil peak its historical high and with the government deciding to reduce subsidy thus increasing the price to US$0.83 (RM2.70) per liter.

On the day the new oil price was announced with an increase of 40%, everyone (don’t deny it, you know you did too) scrambled to the petrol kiosks to have the tank filled and caused chaos with massive traffic and vehicle owners accusing petrol kiosks owners not wanting to sell the petrol at the old prices.

And as if that’s not enough chaos from the fuel price hike, the political bickering between ex-DPM and current PM and (may as well get the whole family tree in) ex-PM all paying attention to the government’s strategy in handling this issue. Wrong move? Could have been better? It’s the right move? Everyone started questioning the price hike reactions.

Putting facts and figures together, the current oil price is nothing worth calling an “issue” that one political party can do better than the current government or one ex-PM can do better than the current PM and his team. Don’t get me wrong as I’m not taking either political side (as I didn’t even vote in the last election due to unforeseen circumstances, not because I’m an irresponsible Malaysian). I just want to pen down the facts that I managed to gather (the closest approximation I could get off the internet).

From the graph, which is self-explanatory, I’m not going to write an analysis on it and not going to find reasons of why it’s (ever) rising, rather would like to focus on “what” can we do to address the global oil price rising.
1. Transportation - Build a better and more efficient transport system so that we don’t have to drive or the old fashion car pool.
2. Alternative source - Use bio-gas if you have to. Re-cycle our waste (like how Singapore re-cycles for water).
3. Financial aspect - Strengthen the Ringgit currency as our purchasing power is so weak out of Asia.
4. Market forces - Let the petrol companies trade in a free market and competitive advantage will prevail to the benefit of consumers.
5. Floating price - Don’t let it be at ONE price. Float it on daily basis, some days you gain, some days you lose.
6. Last but not least, my personal favourite solution - People aspect … STOP WHINING AND LIVE WITH IT!