I read an article in the papers the other day quoting a government official as saying that this year the inflation rate will be below 5% based on their method of calculation using price increase for selective controlled items which are deemed essential.
I for one, am a bit sceptical of his assertion because it does not reflect the actual picture for the man on the streets. That day i went shopping for groceries at the Hartamas Shopping Center and was utterly shocked at the increase in price on some of the items. A bag of 5kg rice Jasmin brand used to cost less than Rm12.00 now costs Rm24.90! Now, it does not take a genious to do a simple math of percentage of increase which is more than 100%! We are talking about a basic food which is a controlled item here, which contributes to the calculation of the inflationary rate for the whole country, of course unless the supermarket flaunted the law by increasing the price to such an extent. The same brand 10kg rice is priced at a whopping Rm44.00! A check for other items showed that the price increase is definitely more than the government's estimate. Couple this with the increase in price for petrol, i started to feel the pinch on my pocket is getting more and more. My bill came to Rm195.00!..for a bag of 5kg rice, less than a kg Bulus fish, 8 cans of softdrinks, 2 bottles of 2kg cooking oil, 3 toothbrushes, a colgate, some cheap chocolotes, bread and a Rm19.90 teddy bear! I was scratching my head at the counter as what costed so much as these items usually totalled up to the most Rm120!
I started to wonder whether the government officer got it all wrong, his calculation, methods, references and all. Maybe the actual figure was higher, and might not be good to publish as such, maybe it will cause the public to panic and they started to scrambled to supermarkets to stock up their supplies, maybe it is not good to show the real figure as it will be a political suicide for the government as it will be seen as the economy is not under control, or maybe there are a lot of unscrupulous businessmen who are taking advantage of this difficult times to multiply their profits by increasing the prices and blame the government instead. But what i know is that, somebody better start to explain the discrepancies in the figures so the public know what to expect and plan their lives accordingly.
On the people's part, what are we to do to face the pressure of ever increasing cost of living in the cities? Well, we can start by taking stock of our financial standing against our life style and pattern of spending. The 30 -30 -40 ratio is a good point to start, we can use 30% of take home income to pay our debts, 30% for saving and the rest to support our day to day lifestyle. Our lifestyle also need changing to cope with increase in cost in almost every items nowadays. We should start to split things into essential and desirable. There should be less weekend outings, clubbing, vacations, outstation trips and of sort which are not essential and cost money. I have already capped my outstaion fshing trip to once a year as the rental for boats has increased due to the diesel price increase lately, and not to mention the petrol price i have to pay for my 4 x 4. I am already thinking to convert to NGV, eventhough there is a rumor that even the gas price might go up, but still cheaper than Rm2.70 a litre. I can recover my installation cost of around Rm6000 in one year. However, i have not done so due to the shortage of petrol stations that have NGV pumps. Petronas anouncement that 200 more petrol stations to have NGV pumps is surely a good news.
On the government's part, please start to think forward with policies and strategies that can make Malaysia self sustained. Being nice and do fire-fighting by giving goodies evertime the rakyat shouted is not good enough! I used to be proud when at one time certain parts of the country are green with padi fields and we were less dependent on imported rice from other countries, now look at how much a kilo of rice costs as this part of the economy is not put enough importance! Looks like i have to plant padi in a tray on my balcony from now on if cost of rice keep shooting up.
We cannot blame every cost increase on the oil price, and use Petronas as a scapegoat as the decision to incease the price is with the government, or use the increase of food prices globally as an excuse. What we want to see is a concrete concerted efforts by the government to deal with this present and immediate danger that can destroy Malaysian's society to oblivion. We also need to see solidarity from opposition parties to stop bickering for a while and think of the health of the country instead during this difficult times. We do not want to see a situation described by a UK's MP as "9 meals away from anarchy" becomes a reality in Malaysia.
Please save the country first while you still have one, because i see no point becoming a Prime Minister of a ruined country.
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