THE MOTHER OF ALL FINANCIAL CRISES: Oil price slide, the Malaysian economy & electricity tariffs

A former chief editor of an Umno-owned paper has chided Najib’s government for failing to tell the truth to the people about the state of the Malaysian economy.

Of course his observation is well founded taking into account current and future oil prices that have been sliding and are expected to continue downwards for at least two more years to come. The CEO of Petronas, the national oil company that acts as the saviour of the Umno-BN government through thick and thin has also indicated that the company would not be able to dish out to the government as freely as it did in the past due to declining revenue. And obviously to add salt to the wound, our currency is also depreciating compared to other major currencies where, as at last Friday, it was being traded at RM3.47 to one US dollar, one of the lowest levels since the financial crisis of 1997.

We are also aware that another major contributor to the national income, palm oil, has also seen a tremendous drop in prices since the middle of the year. Other indicators are also not so promising especially when oil prices are at such a low that other industries are also hit. Over reliance on oil has undone what has been achieved all this while.

While the falling oil prices and weaker ringgit may make our exports more competitive, but it is also going to affect our imports badly with sudden increases of prices of imported goods and services. What with the introduction of GST in April next year, it is obviously going to be a disaster for the ordinary rakyat who earn less than RM3000 per household per month. Even for those households earning around RM 5000, it is going to be very tough indeed.

Now we come to one extremely pressing issue – tariffs for electricity. We were told earlier that the energy provider was going to raise tariffs beginning next year even after having raised it this year. If there was reason to raise the tariff before, perhaps due to high oil prices, what justification is there to maintain the high tariff as it is now since oil prices have dropped? And how ludicrous would it be if TNB were to raise it further next year? It simply does not make sense.

The people especially consumer groups and Pakatan Rakyat must come out strongly and oppose any tariff hike in electricity at a time like this when oil prices are fast dropping. It would be daylight robbery and a mockery if the people allowed TNB to raise electricity rates. PR must demand that TNB begin to slash its rates instead given the current situation.

As the former editor had written in his blog that the people were not fools to believe what the government says, it may be interesting to note that the Najib administration seems to think otherwise.

How then would one explain the retention of the Sedition Act, even strengthening it despite all the opposition to the Act besides continuous evasion of telling the truth about the state of the economy?

Najib can only spew out rhetoric and hollow claims like saying that the “days where government knew best is over” when faced with situations like post GE13 when BN lost further compared to 2008 simply to appease BN supporters.

The firm declaration that the Sedition Act would remain and be enhanced in its punitive aspect only proves that in Umno-BN’s case, there never is a time when the government never knew what was the best. And the people would only matter for the sake of votes.

Back to the dark old days of authoritarianism and economic doldrums. -HARAKAHDAILY