RON 97 petrol and kerosene to cost 10 sen more per litre

[ALBundy]

Singapore, a country with limited resources (limited land, limited water supply etc), is able to surpass the growth % compared to Malaysia. Cost of owning a car is expensive, but the rakyat is well supported by great public transportation.

Brunei, a wealthy country by nature (thanks to their oil), the rakyats' income is literary tax free.

Malaysia, plenty of land and plenty of oil, but........ (we do not benefit from petrol buatan Malaysia). Even our local cars are not dirt cheap. So, why am I still here? Because this country is gold mine to the opportunist.

It all boils down management efficiency as you rightly pointed out.

It is no longer cheap to live in Malaysia. If you have a family with a car and house loans, school going kids life is tough. You will be perpetually be saddled with debts and paying bills all the time, and by the time you are done with house loan and your kids' education, there is little time to enjoy life.

How did we arrive in this situation? And to continue with existing policies will eventually make things worse, and that is what will happen before it will be better in my opinion.

For a start, the education system needs to be revamped, even the non chinese is shunning national schools as I see more than 10% of the Chinese primary school students are non-chinese and in some prominent schools the percentage is even greater.

 

[mizhan]

a friend emailed me this

100 TV Channels For Only RM16..

In Cambodia they have satellite tv too. They only pay USD5.00per month (or approx RM16.00 per month) for 100 channels. I was really surprised. Over here we pay over RM100.00 for a package with Astro and get less than 30 channels. How come?

Cambodia has much, much less infrastructure than us. They need to spend more to provide satellite tv services and yet they are about six times cheaper. And considering that they get about four times as many channels, you can approximately ‘compound’ their ‘cost advantage’ and say that they get 24 times more “value for money” than us in terms of paying for satellite tv (6 times cheaper price x 4 times more channels = 24 times more “value for money”)

In Malaysia we are being ripped off. Not just in paying for satellite tv but in many other things. I do smoke cigars, panatelas and cigarillos (not exactly in the Cohiba league but I like the ‘bau sedap’ ones). In Cambodia and Vietnam, imported cigars are half to one third the price we pay here. And what I would buy from the duty free shops at the airport or from Langkawi is sold by street vendors in Saigon.

In Saigon, a city of 8.6 million people, there are about four million motorbikes. A Made In China 120+ cc bike sells for USD500.00. That is about RM1600.00. Japanese bikes sell for USD1000 (RM3200) upwards. This is almost half the price in Malaysia.

There is no AP to import cigars in Cambodia or Vietnam. Obviously they do not have an import duty or tax regime to import motocycles either.

In Malaysia, we have the AP regime, the monopolies and the oligopolies which are granted so that the low can live high. At our expense. We are paying through our noses for no good reason to keep the few wallowing in excess (and condemning them to be vegetables). Of course you can hisap rokok daun tapi sampai bila kawan? More importantly why? Interestingly a brand new Camry selling everywhere at overseas market for RM65,000 only, but in Malaysia it is going for RM185,000 only. So the extra RM120,000 goes to whose pockets? So is Proton Saga, every unit sold at overseas markets is just about 1/2 the price of its local market!

We have even passed laws in our country that make it a criminal offence to have satellite dishes of more than 36 inches diameter. Sampai bila kawan? Another 5 years? 10 years? 50 years?

So what's the wrong with our goverment ?

 

[ssmann]

I'm frustrated too, but lets stick to cars....no one can mess that passion up for us...cause we alll toooo loco already!!!!

My 2 kupangs

 

[gameover]

So what's the wrong with our goverment ?

So many things, so many many things. The problem is that it's stuck in the government culture that unless there's a revolution, it'll take at least one generation before anything will change significantly. Maybe I'm being pessimistic but I don't see anyone doing anything to fix this.

 

[LiteBulb]

So what's the wrong with our goverment ?

firstly, let us all be open minded and lets take no offence on my comments ya.

if you see, alot of these rulings imposed, tends to be biased towards a specific group of ppl (an obvious example will be the NEP). lifting these rulings, MIGHT put the politicians in jeopardy (votes).

then comes corruption. here bribe, there bribe. i somehow, accepted corruption, but based on - you can be corrupted, but DO something beneficial for which you are empowered to. dont just be a couch corrupted (sit there do nothing but still get bribed).

politicians in our country are power whores (just want to be in power), not leaders.

so, what happens to the taxpayers money? - you see them in merc S500...... and not in our local v6.

cheers!