Price Hike Policies - Support for the Gahmen

From The Star...BN Gets Motion Passed With Big Majority. Well, this is supposed to be our PM's test of his gahmen. Whether or not this gets passed, or that the people agree or disagree, prices of essentials are heading upwards. That I think everyone agrees and is what worries us. What is important is how they are going to manage it or how they are going to make it less painful for your man-on-the-street. Macro managing the economy affects the micro managing at individual levels.

I was just in the supermarket over the weekend. And one of the items I bought was butter. It's been a few weeks (or is it months?) since my last purchase and to my horror a 250g of butter now costs anywhere from RM7.50 to RM13. I thought my butter used to cost around RM5 before this.

Look around...everyone has a story to tell...and all point to one direction. Prices of essentials have gone up and still rising. Apart from the cash rebate for vehicle owners and reduction of road tax, there is very little concrete for us to stand on. All other ground is sinking ground now. Come July, electricity tariff will be up. A couple of days ago, paper products went up. Books are going to cost more!

The increase cannot be helped. Demand outstripping supply, the rule of the rich, the role of the speculators all can't be discounted. But I think the gahmen is not doing enough to cushion it. Petrol goes up but our public transportation system is in a pitiful condition. 10 years ago, when I first moved into the taman, we had public buses plying into it...don't know when they stopped but have not seen a bus here for years. If you asked the bus company, the answer is probably it's not profitable. Once profitable small bus companies have all been taken over by bigger players, often these are your regular well connected persons, and instead of getting better services, it's been the opposite....like everything else in this once Bolehland.....That is why only about 20% of our people use the public transport as compared to 50-70% in advance countries.

So, the gahmen passed its first test of confidence, so they say...passed the motion by an overwhelming majority. The term "pass motion" is often used in Asian countries such as India, Singapore and Malaysia to refer to an activity that people do in the toilet to pass out the food from their stomach after taking their meals (a bowel habit). So looks like we are on the receiving end here. On a tree full of monkeys...the monkeys at the bottom take the most shit...and that is where most of us are, right now! Sitting there and taking in a whole load of shit!