[nst] Abdullah is keeping it real
- From: pluto <...pluto@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 11 Sep 2005 23:28:32 +0800
http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Sunday/Columns/20050911090005/Article/indexb_html
PLAIN TALK: Abdullah is keeping it real
Brendan Pereira SEPT 11:
SUCH are the risks of bold leadership: What may help the country in the
long
run sometimes makes bad politics in the short term.
Nowhere is this dilemma more evident than in the desire by the Abdullah
administration to bring the fuel subsidy to a more realistic level.
Reducing
the subsidy that Malaysians have enjoyed for decades makes good economic
sense.
Making petrol and diesel artificially cheap for everyone from the lawyer to
the janitor can never qualify as a productive use of resources.
Why subsidise a man who has three cars parked in the garage of his bungalow
in the leafy suburb of Taman Tun Dr Ismail?
A better solution would have been to divert the billions from fuel
subsidies
into projects that benefit the people who needed it most. A better public
transport system. Better hospitals. More scholarships.
Also, shielding the population and industry from the spike in world oil
prices only encourages inefficiency and distorts the true picture of the
country's competitiveness.
Propelled by this thinking, the Government started reducing the generous
fuel subsidy last year.
The plan was to make it as painless as possible - a gargantuan task
considering this small fact: Nobody likes to give up anything. Not the drug
addict. Not the schoolyard weakling. Not the freeloader.
A gargantuan task considering another fact: The price of oil affects the
cost of almost everything else.
It helps determine not just the cost of driving to work or flying off on
holiday, but everything that must be transported from the factory to the
shop floor.
So it was just a matter of time before Malaysians started to feel the
pinch.
A survey commissioned by the New Straits Times showed that 25 per cent of
those polled are finding it difficult to cover their living expenses and 40
per cent are not too happy with their economic conditions.
Ground reports suggest that Opposition politicians have been quietly but
effectively mining this discontent, chipping away at Abdullah's image as a
man of the people.
Caught in this scenario, the PM had two options: Ignore the rumblings and
bash through with his plan to further reduce subsidies. Stick to the plan,
come what may.
He would certainly have won praise outside Malaysia for being committed to
reducing the budget deficit. But being dogmatic could have cost him at
home.
Perhaps that is why he went for Plan B. That is why the administration
moved
with unusual speed and announced that:
.. there would be no increase in petrol, diesel and cooking gas prices until
year-end;
.. all highway toll rates would remain unchanged until January 2007;
.. road tax for commercial vehicles slashed by 25 per cent, RM30 a year for
private cars below 1,000cc and 50 per cent for cars of 1,000cc to 1,600cc.
More goodies will most certainly follow when the Budget is presented on
Sept
30. Money will be spent.
It is a wise strategy. The last thing Abdullah needs is widespread
dissatisfaction.
He is months away from completing his second year as PM, and some of the
reforms he started are beginning to show positive signs.
For example, reports suggests that while many Malaysians still think that
corruption is a serious problem, they believe there has been an improvement
in the last 12 months.
But he can only get support for this and other reforms if Malaysians
believe
that their tangible needs are being taken care of.
Nobody wants to hear about a better public delivery system or the reforms
of
government-linked companies if they have a daily battle making ends meet.
In
a time of need, people want a leader who shows empathy, directs resources
and marshals recovery.
Abdullah understands this reality. He knows that for his agenda to move
forward, he needs Malaysians to be with him.
Still, do not expect the PM to suddenly become profligate and announce a
gush of mega-projects during the Budget. It's not going to happen. He
follows a simple philosophy: He believes that future generations of
Malaysians cannot be made to pay for expenses chalked up by this
generation.
There will probably be an emphasis on getting projects off the ground fast,
and for money to be disbursed quickly.
Coupled with a plan to make the price increases easier to stomach should be
an education programme on the fuel subsidy.
A recent survey shows that many Malaysians have a murky idea of the jump in
global oil prices and the amount the Government spends to keep the prices
at
home low. And that is being charitable.
More than 80 per cent of those polled believe that the Government can
influence world oil prices. Flowing from this belief is the perception that
the Government can do more to control pump prices.
Perhaps that is why 51 per cent of those surveyed agreed with the statement
that the Government had not done enough to maintain fuel prices.
More than 1,000 people were also asked this simple question: Do you agree
or
disagree with the view that the withdrawal of fuel subsidies will, in the
long run, make the country's economy stronger and more competitive?
Nearly 50 per cent disagreed.
All these findings point to one conclusion: that despite the wall-to-wall
coverage in the media, Malaysians have at best a sketchy knowledge of
rising
oil prices and the reasons why the Government is cutting subsidies.
This is a situation that will have to be addressed before the Government
even contemplates another subsidy cut.
____
http://www.asianewsnet.net/level3_template1.php?l3sec=10&news_id=45287
OPEC chief says oil price too high, will fall
ANN Publication Date : 2005-09-11
OPEC General Secretary Adnan Shihab-Eldin says current oil prices are too
high and are going to fall in an interview with a German magazine to be
published Monday.
"The fundamentals of the market don't in any case justify a price this
high," he told Der Spiegel magazine.
Shihab-Eldin said an energy crisis has been avoided despite the damage
caused by Hurricane Katrina, which affected US oil production in the Gulf
of
Mexico, and predicted prices would fall.
"Consumers have no reason to panic," he said Saturday.
"We, at OPEC, have no interest at all in record oil prices. Nobody should
slide into a recession," he said while condemning the major oil companies
for taking "exorbitant profits" instead of urgently investing "in the
refineries which are needed".
World oil prices slid back from record highs this week as the US government
led a drive by major industrial powers to release emergency supplies of
crude on to markets still reeling from Hurricane Katrina.
New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in October, fell
41
cents to close at US$64.08 a barrel on Friday.
The OPEC cartel was likely to raise its oil production quotas by at least
500,000 barrels per day when it meets on September 19 and 20 in Vienna, the
Iranian oil ministry's head of OPEC affairs, Javad Yarjani said on
September. -- AFP
=====================================================
[pluto note: the above is a verbatim copy and paste message without any comment from me. If i have any comment, it is in square brackets thus [pn...]
[pluto note:
Reading without understanding is idiotic.
Understanding without cybernetic dialectics creates harmonious discords]
cheers
pluto
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