Pouring Petrol over fire

Last Monday, anticipating the impending increase on petrol prices at the pump, I went to fill up my tank. Somehow I figured out that after the wednesday Cabinet meeting, the announcement would be made and it would take immediate effect, even though the Minister's statement showed otherwise. When my daughter came back from office on wednesday evening, she told me that all petrol stations were swamped by people queuing for their turn, spilling over to the roads. This is a typical reaction of many Malaysian motorists, who suffered this syndrome like pouring petrol over a fire. We should thank our lucky stars that we are a net exporter of oil, that we have been cushioned against the steep prices at the pump, as compared to those countries who are net importers of the precious black gold. But we should not be complacent because our country is said to fall into that category in a few years. Since the lid over pricing of petrol is lifted and the market forces will be operational, then the motorists are going to be more hurt before the close of the year. The Domestic Trade Minister indicated that petrol could even go up to RM4 per litre by August, judging from the trend of global price of oil. Thus Malaysians should be asking the Govt. what is the long term strategy to curb the consequential effects of the spiralling costs of oil. We are merely reacting, rather the Govt. should be more proactive. Subsidies are just stop-gap measures which do not address the problem. The Govt. should come out with a sustainable long term strategy of coping with the problem of oil so that we will not be caught with our pants down. At the same time, motorists should be prepared to pay RM4 per litre at the pump earlier than expected.