Fuel Price Hike

The recent fuel price hike is most unwelcome at a time when the people are still grappling with the effects of record high prices of food items. Next, with the fuel price hike, a cascade of other problems that are more humanitarian in nature may emerge soon in poverty-stricken areas and this will add to the complexity of the dissatisfaction, frustration, and anger of the people in the urban areas.

The government or Petronas for that matter has not yet answered professionally the simple but smart question of the people. “In an oil-rich state like Sabah why is the price of fuel so unbelievably and illogically high?” In Venesuela, an oil-rich nation, the price of petrol is just about RM0.70 per liter as revealed by a reliable source. Perhaps Malaysia could take a page on oil management from Venesuela.

Of course we are encouraged to personally take positive measures in the face of this crisis but this is just micro economics which is far from complete to solve the problem which is systemic in nature. Nevertheless, I did try out some measures. I minimized my travels greatly and bought a fuel enhancer that saves fuel up to 28 percent while it increases engine power by up to 20 percent. The cost of the fuel enhancer is RM39.00 with a meagre content of 120ml. For every 5 litres of diesel I pump into my Ranger I add an ml of the enhancer. Apart from that the enhancer reduces harmful emissions up to 98 percent and extends engine life. So far it works.

But then again this is not the ultimate solution. We must address the elusive but bottom-line question: “Why is fuel very expensive in oil-rich states?” The people are suffering from the fuel price hike now because of the lack of a strategic, comprehensive, futuristic, transparent, and people-oriented management plan on the energy resource. I support the call on Petronas to make all its accounts and transactions available soon for public scrutiny. Irregularities should meet the initiation of an appropriate Commission of Inquiry.

Finally, it may not be a scientific management problem but a basic gut drive that we are dealing with after all, as we fondly remember the hint insisted by Mahatma Gandhi and paraphrasing him, “Oil is enough for everybody’s need but not enough for somebody’s greed.”