Petrol price up.. in Malaysia...

Couldn't help but noticed that the Malaysian government has imposed a 30sen increase on each litre of petrol.. My goodness!! How are the common folks in Malaysia going to survive?? When petrol prices go up, the prices of everything else will follow, sooner or later..

Many of my Singaporean friends asked me how the common folks in Malaysia survive with less than RM500 per month. I told them very badly. That is why the subsidies has to come in. Yes, the cars are cheap (compared to Spore), the petrols are cheap (as compared to Spore), well, actually everything is cheaper as compared to Singapore. However, the average pay for a fresh university graduate is less than RM1,200!! Imagine one has to get a car to commute to work, as the public transportation is hopeless. Imagine the interest one pays for loans, be it housing loan and car loan is about 1.5 times Spore's. Even if the daily groceries are subsidised, everything else is about the same price as Singapore, if one lives in big city like KL or Penang.

Over here in Singapore, the government is giving out money to its citizens (not PRs though) as the government did well the last financial year. While over at Malaysia, the government is effectively taking money from its citizens!! What a big contrast!!

There was a big protest in KL over this price increase, but I don't think it will do any good. Unless something is done at the ballot boxes, the current government will continue with what it is currently doing... I feel for the common folks in Malaysia...