We don't have enough dead dinosaurs!

Yes, we don't have enough of......dead dinosaurs

Ladies and gentlemen, we have seen the price of crude oil soaring from under US$100/barrel not too long ago until the alarming price of US$136.74/barrel (Bloomberg.com/energy). As everyone should know by now, the petrol prices in Malaysia has increased a whooping 40% last week. At RM2.70 per litre, getting stuck in a traffic jam has just become costlier than ever. To make things worse, the supply of food around the world is also dwindling and obviously, the price of food increases too.

Following the increase of the fuel and food prices, the government has made promises to aid the 'rakyat' in coping in the times of high inflations. So far, the government announced measures to cut costs in government offices and also in works to place more items on the controlled-price list. However, are these measures efficient enough to cope with these major problems? We see many people writing in to The Star and giving their two-cents-worth and urging the government to take certain steps. Unfortunately, we have not seen any moves by the government responding to the letters. That leaves everyone thinking what the government is really up to.

In this post, I want to highlight certain steps that have been recommended by The Star's readers on how the government can help alleviate the burden of the people.

1. Start producing hybrid cars!

Please, if Proton can acquire Lotus, why can't it buy over Toyota's Hybrid technology? Ok, that sounded a little too naive. Still, at least start working on hybrids! There's a Star reader who wrote "Proton should make electric & NGV cars. It is not competitive with normal cars anyway." Haha! I wonder if Proton sees it. If they did, I hope they really sit down and reconsider their development directions.

Furthermore, a quick search in the internet showed that there are also hybrid buses and trains functioning in the European countries and the US. Woot?! Hybrids are no longer in experimental stages and its technology is already production-ready as proved by the Western countries and also Japan. There's even an upcoming hybrid sports car in the works! So, what are we waiting for?

Not this hybrid...

2. Give incentives for people who want to import hybrid cars and encourage people to do so.

Lower import taxes for hybrids! I personally think that hybrid cars are the way of the future with its environmentally-friendly design mindset. Not only hybrids consumes less fuel than normal cars, it also produces less greenhouses gases. Why not kill two birds with one stone by using hybrids? There is an expatriate living in Malaysia who wrote to The Star about his experiences of importing his hybrid Toyota Prius. According to him, the shipping fees for his car cost him about RM100,000+. But what's more is that the import duty he had to pay for the car is even higher than its shipping fees! Wth? The government should really look into this matter as it will only discourage those who wanted to do the same.

Toyota Prius, the most common hybrid in the West... is not available here

3. Ok, if hybrids can't work here, the get more NGVs going around please.

As most of us know, taxis runs on natural gas to minimize their operating costs. Why? Simply because Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) is much much MUCH cheaper than petroleum itself. SO, the government should look into subsidies that aids people for the conversion of petroleum driven cars to LPG driven cars. Yes, it will probably cost the government a bomb for now. But in long term, it will eventually pay off when crude oil prices soar and by then, the government would not need to subsidise petrol so heavily as most are using LPG.

4. Give LPG selling rights to other petrol stations!

Haven't we all seen taxis queuing up to fill up their tanks at certain Petronas stations? Well, if we were to encourage people to convert their cars to use LPG, shouldn't we provide them with more petrol stations to fill their LPG tanks instead of just a selected few Petronas? As consumers, convenience of use is a major factor in deciding on a product. It will be a BIG BIG inconvenience if we only have a meagre amount of petrol stations selling LPG. So, why isn't the government taking action already?

5. Reduce corruption.

I think for this, you know, i know, we all know. Enough said.

So, this ends the post for now, the fuel price is still high, the food supply is getting less, the world is warming up, the war on terrorism is still going on, people are murdered everyday, crime rates are increasing...is the Earth still inhabitable?