A lot tougher to make ends meet

By Patrick Lee - Free Malaysia Today

COMMENT The price hike is no stranger to the ordinary Malaysians. In fact, many have come to look upon it as the unwanted, crazy-in-law who decided to show up at your house for the weekend.
Stealthily making their way into our economy, many found out about the changes to the prices of sugar, cooking gas and fossil fuels only at the very last minute.

It was reported that the 25-sen per kilogram price hike on sugar would result in a 1.25-sen increase for a cup of teh tarik. Considering that the government thinks that the price of teh tarik is RM1 each, you'd have to end up paying RM1.0125 for every cup you drink.

Sounds pretty minimal, doesn't it? However, one look would tell you that the mathematics behind each price is highly simplistic.

For starters, you would be hard-pressed to find a cup of teh tarik in KL at RM1 each. The last time a cup might have cost about RM1 would have been at least 10 years ago.

Sugar isn't only prevalent in a cup of tea. It can also be found in creamer, Milo and other powders, bread and other confectioneries, sweets and cakes, and even ketchup and chili sauce, just to name a few.

With a five-sen increase in fuel – thus affecting the harvesting and transport of sugar -- it would be quite inaccurate to say that the price of teh tarik will inflate by 1.25 sen. Furthermore, with cooking gas prices going up as well, what's stopping everything else from being affected as well?

A report from the Prime Minister's Department (“Fact Sheet: Subsidy Rationalization”) said that the hike was a good idea as many Malaysians suffered from health problems such as obesity and diabetes. It is also felt that by doing so, citizens would be less inclined to put sugar in their morning tea.

If the Prime Minister's Department felt that Malaysians would use less sugar in their diet if the price went up, would they also use more public transport since fuel prices have also been increased?

Some sort of protection needed

There is nothing wrong with doing away with subsidies, as the population cannot expect to depend on them in the long run. However, in order for ordinary Malaysians to cope with a gradual subsidy reduction, there needs to be some sort of protection in return.

There are many suggestions, and one way is through wage increase. A minimum wage would go a long way towards ensuring a worker's livelihood.

Another way would be through proper enforcement. A company would have to think twice before dumping its local workers for cheaper, foreign ones if it knew that government agents were constantly keeping an eye on its operations.

For some strange reason, however, the administration doesn't seem to be all that interested in the man in the street. Instead of conducting a nationwide poll or consulting NGOs on a mininum wage policy, the Ministry of Human Resources sought the opinions of the public on one of its blogsites and received only 77 comments (which probably explains its lack of interest in the mininum wage issue).

The manner in which the hikes were introduced was also suspect. In recent years, price changes would usually be followed by announcements detailing the products affected.

Hours after the Parliament sessions ended, Malaysians suddenly found themselves acquainted with the new prices.

Malaysiakini reported that a number of directives were given to the mainstream media by the PM's office. These orders “encouraged” editors to change phrases such as “price hike”, into more acceptable buzzwords such as “upward price adjustment”.

They were also prevented from doing street polls, and were required to take opinions from “BN-friendly consumer groups”.

Akin to a death sentence

How will the price hike affect Malaysians? For high-income groups, perhaps not at all. While the middle-class may feel a bit of a pinch, it is the lower-income category that will suffer the most.

Raja Nong Chik Raja Zainal Abidin, Federal Territories and Urban Wellbeing Minister, stated that RM3,000 should be enough for just about anybody, especially if you're a city dweller. As long as they “do not live in luxurious places”.

Even without price hikes, many Malaysians are already finding it difficult to make ends meet, much less live in “luxurious places”. A worker from Hulu Selangor's Nigel Gardner plantation may find himself taking home not more than RM600 a month. Many indigenous tribesmen such as the Semai have had to live without basic amenities, such as education, proper roads and even electricity.

Political analyst James Chin says that the increase in fuel and sugar prices would raise a family's expenses by about RM100 to RM150. For the poverty-stricken family, it is akin to a death sentence.
Families will have to cut down on already sparse stocks, and no number of political visits during by-elections are going to assist them.

Government reaction

Just last month, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Nazri Aziz said that there was not enough money to keep the Public Service Department scholarships going (a decision that was overturned). He also talked about shifting Parliament to Putrajaya, with an RM800 million price tag.

Recently, it was announced that parliamentary speakers and senate presidents were to receive hefty allowance increments, including RM2,500 for hiring servants. Barisan MPs have also been given an additional RM500,000 each, presumably for the benefit of their voters.

And let's not forget the RM800 million allocated for the upcoming palace along Jalan Duta, where many workers there have complained of not receiving their wages.

It is one thing to make a tough, unpopular decision. It is another thing to receive some benefits for yourself after doing so.

Raising the price of essential goods, while saying there isn't enough money for the public, is like adding insult to injury.

The funny thing is, Malaysia is not a war-torn country with a dearth of natural resources. We have an abundance of natural wealth to keep the country going for a long, long time.

So why we are we running out of money? Why are some communities finding it difficult to put food on the table? Why do we still have people without clean water and electricity?

Then again, why is it so easy to approve of yet another multi-billion ringgit contract without public scrutiny?

While Parliament seems to have no trouble increasing its MPs' wages or considering a Goods and Services Tax, there appears to be little effort made to protect workers or implement much- needed infrastructure.

With the government planning to do away with subsidies by 2020, and with people having to “change their lifestyles” in response, it's going to get a lot tougher for Malaysians to survive on a day-to-day basis.