Petrol price hike puts Pat Lah's gomen in jeopardy......

Brace yourself for petrol price hike. Whether its tomorrow or come August it doesn’t matter much and whether you like it or not petrol price is going to increase, not by 10 or 20 or 30 cents but more for now. The gomen has come out with a brilliant idea, yes, what they call “subsidy scheme restructuring”. The Minister concerned,Shahrir Samad said, the details and implementation method of the new subsidy scheme would be thrashed out by August, when the full plan is scheduled to be in place.

Shahrir said the new subsidies would be a needs-based system, rather than the current arrangement which lowers the cost of petrol for all users no matter what their income.

He told Bernama that the government was considering mechanisms including offering cash payments or setting quotas. Currently petrol sells for about RM1.92 a liter, among the cheapest in the region,says the gomen. If petrol is to be sold at full market prices, it could be as high as almost RM4 a liter - about 100 percent above current levels.

Just imagine if the price of petrol is RM 4.00 a liter, the domino effect it will create on the prices of the public transportation, prices of essential goods,groceries, meals,etc,etc will be humungous.

Imagine how much you are going to pay for a cup of the tarik and roti canai from your favourite mamak shop? From the current RM 2.10 to RM 4.10? I would rather boycott the mamak shop and prepare my own teh tarik from now.

Hoarding will be prevalent and it will encourage more price increases. Our lifestyles are likely to change. In other words fuel has a direct, and indirect effect with the everyday activities of people. While the culture of fear that has been indoctrinated into our mindset might make us to over-react by panic buying and that will worsen the situation more than expected.

How is the gomen going to cope with this is anyone guess,when their encounter with the price increase of rice that shot up by over 100% for certain grades went haywire,while Bernas is laughing its way to the bank.

Will this phenomenon lead to Pat Lah’s ultimate downfall? It is left to be seen, as the rakyat will wait and see whether Anwar can offer better alternatives that will eventually pressure BN MPs to lend their support for the Pakatan Rakyat to take over the gomen.

Lets hear what Pat Lah is going say today.......

cheers.