Caught this in the news today.
[source]
Malaysians consume more fuel
PETALING JAYA: Malaysians are one of the highest fuel consumers in the region where even price increases have not deterred motorists.
Since 2004, they have consumed more than 400 litres per capita annually, which is much more than Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, China and India. Singapore, which was ranked second among the list of six countries, only consumed 250 litres per capita in 2007.
India and China consumed under 50 litres per capita in 2007, according to data collated from the Finance Ministry, Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Ministry, International Energy Agency and Global Insight.
Even with fuel prices at its highest in mid-2008, when petrol was at RM2.70 and diesel at RM2.58 per litre, consumption still grew by 8% annually and almost 20 billion litres are expected to be consumed by the end of 2010.
As Malaysia practises a blanket subsidy on fuel, data made available to the Performance Management and Delivery Unit (Pemandu) subsidy rationalisation lab showed that 71% of fuel subsidy was enjoyed by the middle to high-income level groups.
Some 28% of those enjoying fuel subsidy earn more than RM5,000 per month, while 43% earned between RM2,500 and RM5,000.
Abuse of liquid petroleum gas (LPG), or cooking gas, has also contributed to an inflated subsidy bill. Some RM1.71bil was spent on subsidising LPG, to which only RM397mil or 30% are used by households.
It is believed that the rest of the LPG had been misused for commercial purposes or smuggled abroad.
The same issue affects cooking oil, where 70,000 tonnes are subsidised monthly but only about 70% are consumed by households.
So first we Malaysians get harped on using too much water – which I believe we have every reason to do so. And now, apparently, we use too much fuel.
You know, it’s funny (in a moronic sense) to see how they made it sound in the article above as if we Malaysians deliberately use/burn more fuel just for the kick of it. Like, we’re trying our best to be the biggest assholes in the eyes of the world by burning more fuel.
If one can use a little bit of common sense, one would realize that the reason an average Malaysian burns more fuel is because – WE DON’T HAVE A FUCKING CHOICE! Ask yourself, how many cities in Malaysia have an efficient mass transit system (LRT, monorail, etc)? Only KL and some areas beyond it. A city with inhabitants of roughly 2 million people. That still leaves over 90% of the Malaysian population without the access to a mass transit system. Our Malaysian bus systems are basically next to being useless – so we have to use our own transport (still have to buy one even though it’s 300% overpriced like that). And to top that up, we also have crappy traffic planning (eg: OC given on apartment projects with only 1 parking space) and fucked up tax system on vehicles that makes it impossible to afford a hybrid car.
So, do we like to buy overpriced cars? No. Do we like traffic congestion (due to the crappy traffic planning)? No. Do we like to pay more and spend more on fuel? No. Do we have a fucking choice then? FUCK NO.
This is what we Chinese like to call – kong lan wa. It literally means ‘talk cock’. Give us a choice, then only you get to talk. Otherwise, shut up.