Ban the sales of petrol to foreigners?

I was amazed by Malaysian's government decision to ban the sales of petrol to foreigners, or to any car with foreign number,within 50km radius of the border. It's even in the New Zealand newspaper! Don't you think it's ridiculous? Just imagine a foreigner from Singapore who wants to driver around Johor Baru for few days. If he drive a lot within few days, where does he want to fuel up his car? Would be ridiculous for him to travel more than 50km just to find a petrol station where he can fuel up his car. Or he can just go back to Singapore which mean Johor will get less revenue from tourism activities.

Last year alone, the total of subsidy is RM54 BILLION. Personally I do not think subsidy is a wise move in the long term. It just create a distortion in the economy which might result in inefficiency. In New Zealand, I have to pay around NZD2 per litre of Petrol while our lucky friends in Malaysia will only have to pay around NZD0.6 to NZD0.7 per liter (i think it's around RM1.90 to RM2 in Malaysia). Here in New Zealand, everyone is planning their travel properly while in Malaysia, I doubt there are many who do so (this is frommy personal experience, I even drive to go to a shop which is 2 km away). People might argue that the move to reduce the subsidy will be harmful for the citizen. But imagine the government halves the subsidy, every Malaysian citizen will get extra RM1000 per year at least. Definitely it will not be in term of cash, but the government can use the money for human development. These development programmes will ultimately increase the wealth of Malaysian citizen and they then can afford to pay for the petrol. It is vital to instill a culture of you spend what you got. Some people might argue that it's unfair for people who even can't afford to pay for the minimum stuff. So why not create a mechanism where those people will get more incentive than other people? Say all the money from the subsidy can be used to build more free school,free polytechnic and free university. Those money can even be used to build farms or businesses. These value added activities will ensure the money keep flowing around, rather than let the money burnt by the petrol.

A good friend of mine once argued, we are petroleum exporter, why should we pay for the petrol? I really hope the government can start a "PETROLEUM SUBJECT" in school and let a FIERCE and SCARY teacher explain that petroleum is a non renewable resources. A report by Petronas has confirmed that at current rate, Malaysia will be a net importer of petroleum within 12 years. At the moment we can afford to subsidize RM54 BILLION because Petronas can get those money by selling petrol. But what about after 12 years? We should set a culture of sustainability. It is important to fill your needs right now, but you also have to think about the future. What about your children? Or it's just 10 years, it might affect yourself too.

I believe by reducing the subsidy, people will start to find a more efficient way to improve their lives, their businesses and so on. For example, businessman will not have to drive so much to go for meeting, they can just use internet to have teleconference. Internet not so fast enough? Then take the subsidy money and use it to upgrade internet. Efficiency will result in less demand for petrol and it will cause the price to fall. At that time, guess what you will enjoy? Efficiency means you will have more money, but you will have to pay less for the petrol. Result?BETTER LIFE!
It is estimated that the price of petrol will reach US200 per barrel. I guess that time the total of subsidy will be RM100 BILLION. I think it is rather unsustainable for government to keep subsidising the petrol. The government must be brave to make a non popular decision. Please think about the country, not your personal interest...

The rising price of food

I am attracted to the current issue that is faced by most of the population on earth, which is the rising price of food. Across the world, be it wheat or rice, the price of food is increasing at a dizzying rate However it is rice, which is the foundation of the Asian and also the symbol of its culture, that is causing the greatest anxiety. Most of Asian families spend more than half of their income to buy food, and the increasing price force them to reduce expenditure on other item (or even have to eat less food). The simple explaination given by economists is there is not enough rice in the market. But most people would ask, "where does the rice go?"I would say that this phenomena is the ugly consequences of globalisation. As a result of globalisation, every country is becoming more and more specialized in one industry and become more reliant on other countries for food. We can see that many developing countries in the world is focusing more on service industry rather than agriculture. Many leaders of those countries claimed that they do not reduce the production of food. But one vital point not to forget is the increasing number of the population. As the number of human increases at an increasing rate, the demand for food is also increasing. Countries such as Philippines and Bangladesh depend on imported rice to feed their large populations. However due to low supply of rice in, many exporting countries have resorted to limit their export. The importing countries then will face the problem of low supply of food and will have to increase the price of food to reduce the demand.However, people tend to forget that rice is the foundation of their population and there is no way people will stop buying rice. I could not see this problem to be solved in the near future if effort to increase the supply of rice in their own countries are not taken. In fact, I do not see they can increase the supply of food quickly enough due to other problem, such as the rising cost of petrol which will increase the cost of manufacturing food.