Up, up and away

It was such a depressing day.

It started with the heavy downpour late in the evening. The skies were so dark that it might as well be midnight. It was like the rain came down with a vengeance, pelting everything in its path with such malice that the only reasonable thing to do is to stay indoors.

Then, the news came. Oil price will be up by 40% come midnight, and suddenly, there was pandemonium everywhere. People seemed to be rushing out to fill up their vehicles, paying the last RM1.92 per litre one more time before it is no more.

For come midnight, the new price will be RM2.70 per litre. Which is still, as the Prime Minister repeated for the hundredth times, the cheapest in the region. It must be a decision that he dreaded making, because as of now, he must be the most hated man in the country. Not that it was entirely his fault, but then again, there are bulls-eye marks all over his body. And I wouldn’t be surprised if the membership of his hate-group balloons overnight due to the announcement.

Cheapest in the region. Yes, our fuel price might be of that, but that is not a good reason to justify the big hike. Over and over again, everytime when there was a hike, the same reasons have been used. We are lucky to have a government kind enough to be subsidising some part of the fuel, hence the cheapest in the region tag.

But what’s in everybody’s mind is this, how long can this go on? With the price of crude oil in the international market rising each day, it is inevitable that fuel price everywhere starts to increase. There is nothing much that we can do, as we let the fate of the matters in the hands of speculators and oil barons.

Can we find an alternative to fuel? In this country, driving is a necessity because we don’t have a comprehensive public transportation system. Taking the buses might be a cheaper alternative, but it’s so time consuming that you ended up weighing which is better, to waste your time or your money. The LRTs and trains are better, but at times they are so packed that it's such a hassle just to get into one.

But what we fear most is the chain reaction of the price hike. With fuel playing a big part in almost everything, prices of goods and services will surely go up. The government can assure the people about controlling this and that, and giving the best to the people, but how many times have we seen this method failed miserably. It's the same with the empty promises made during the election, they were just empty.

On another note, it was ironic how cars were queuing up at petrol pumps for hours just to fuel up. Don't you think that letting the car idle for such a long time doesn't burn fuel? There were even fights when some cars were spotted cutting queue. But the worst of the lot is the petrol pumps which put up sign "out of petrol" just so that they can make a bigger profit the next day.

It's still too early to see the impact on the fuel hike. The shock might stay for a week, or even a month. But life has to go on, and adjustments must be make. Maybe public transport doesn't seem that bad after a while.

Or maybe an investment on a bicycle might be good in the long run.