Disclaimer: I am not a blogger who specialized on politics. I generally do not write about politics but only do so when some of the decisions are affecting millions of life. I am not supporting anyone, and most importantly, I am not against any political parties. The information in this page is solely my opinion. Please check out the Related Links for more information.
The news has been announced and confirmed, finally, after much denial from our Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi. The parliament has been dissolved on February 14th, 2008, and parties nomination will be on February 24th, and the General Election will be held on March 8th, 2008.
Now, the question is, why March 8th, 2008? We certainly do not need to have a general election until May 2009. For me, the way I see it, is because of 2 main reasons.
1. Anwar Ibrahim, and
2. Petrol price.
Anwar Ibrahim
After Anwar Ibrahim’s release from the prison, he will not be eligible to participate in politics until April 14, 2008 [You can get a lot of information from Wiki page here]. Now, in a Chinese saying, “When you have one more tomb, you have one more ghost.” Basically that means when you have one more person (Anwar Ibrahim) eligible to participate in politics, you (Abdullah Badawi) will have one more contestant running against you. I mean, Abdullah Badawi can continue to deny that Anwar Ibrahim is part of the reason for an early General Election, but who will believe him anyway?
Let’s be honest here. Even though Anwar Ibrahim was arrested, sentenced to prison for years, he still is a charismatic leader and he still have a lot of followers. In another word, he is still a force to be reckoned with.
Petrol Price
Petrol price is something interesting. First of all, all of us know that the global crude oil price has been on the rise for the past 20 months. From the low of USD 40 per barrel, the price broke USD 100 per barrel mark not long ago. Interestingly, our government did not increase the fuel price. Even last year, when the global crude oil price was trading at very high price, the government even promised that there would be no increase in petrol price.
Is it because the government finally realize that our own people are not earning that much and an increase in petrol price will hurt all the citizens? You got to be joking me.
The reason is very simple; If the government were to increase the petrol price before the election, then the people of the country, the voters, will be pissed (for the lack of better word) and the controlling political party cannot risk that, so they bite their lips and just refuse to increase the petrol price.
Other Related Issues
Remember how Abdullah Badawi rule with iron fist to control the media? The mainstream newspaper did not report a lot of those protest or peace walk (but thanks for the freedom in Internet, you can actually read about them and see lots of pictures on blogs). Why there are thousands of police force on the street for a peace walk and arrested many people under Internal Security Act? Why the government is seeing protesters as a more serious threats than criminals [example here].
The reason is very simple; when there is a protest, the disharmony and the frustration towards the government might be spread to other people, so the government is doing all they can, including using police force, arresting those protest leaders by Internal Security Act, and stopping the mainstream media such as newspaper, TV stations, radio stations and etc to report these matters to the public, to contain these group of people from spreading the feeling of frustrations towards the government.
So What Does All These Means?
Simple. There are only a few certainty in this, and you can mark my word for it.
First of all, the controlling parties can enjoy a few more years of peace without the threat from Anwar Ibrahim. After this General Election, the Malaysian government doesn’t have to do another one until 2013. Hey, that’s 5 years of peace.
Secondly, after the General Election and the next one will not be due until 5 years later, the government can start increasing the petrol price. Yup, by that time, if you want to bitch about it, they can say, “Sorry dude, tough luck.”
Some sources said that the government wants to increase the petrol price in Malaysia by around 30 cents to 60 cents per liter. There is no way I can confirm this, but we shall see after the General Election.
Yes, we certainly have one of the lowest petrol price in the region. But let’s take U.S. for an example. [You can check the U.S., petrol price here] From the data, and for the sake of calculation, let’s say the average petrol price in the U.S., is USD 3 per gallon (USD 1 = RM 3.25, 1 gallon = 3.785 liters) and that works out to be RM2.576 per liters. Right now our petrol price is RM1.92 per liter. If let’s say the rumor is right, then we are looking at RM2.22 to RM2.52 per liter (RM 1.92 + 30 cents and RM 1.92 + 60 cents. Get it?) So how cheap is that?
For me, I would rather see that the subsidy on the petrol removed so that the government don’t have to fork out billions every year. But at the same time, remove the hilarious tax structure on automotive so that cars can be more affordable and force our national car makers (namely Proton and Perodua, in case you have been living in the jungle) to compete with global players and force them to buckle up and start improving on the cars that they build.
For me, it doesn’t matter who becomes the Prime Minister. All I want to see is a clean election, a leader who is selfless, who can lead, who can curb corruption, who can bring the country to a new height. I don’t want a person who is corrupted to be our Prime Minister. I don’t want a person who cannot lead to be our Prime Minister. I don’t want a selfish person who do not care about the citizens to be our Prime Minister. I don’t want a sleeping Prime Minister.
But I guess that is too much to ask for.
Related Links:
The Star
Rocky’s Bru
Global Embarassment by Niamah (our very fine Mr. Patrick Teoh)
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Ijok: Money Can Buy Victory
Enough of Ijok or Any By Election
Another Shot at Ijok Clean Politics
A Letter to Ijok Opposition Party
By Election? Buy Election?
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