It was announced just recently, to be exact on 16th July 2010, that some essential goods such as sugar, petrol diesel and liquefied petroleum gas or L.P.G., its subsidy were cut.

However, the authorities’ bold move was intended to reduce the government’s expenditure and improve the country’s financial position.

The government’s step which were taken, were not expected to have major effects on the people, so said the Prime Minister, Datuk Najib Tun Razak.

For example, sugar which increased from RM1.65 to RM1.90, a rise of 25 cents per kilogram, was expected to increase the health of the people, who have been reported to have consumed large amount of sugar. Malaysians are said to be overweight or obese. In fact, it is reported that Malaysians are on the whole 40% overweight.

Therefore, the increase in the price of sugar is a blessing in disguise. Malaysians should in fact not complain too much over the increase in the current price of sugar. According to a statement, which was released from the Prime Minister’s department, the percentage of people in Malaysia suffering from diabetes has now exceeded that of the United States.

Will the increase in the price of sugar see an increase in the price of drinks, especially at mamak stalls, coffee shops and restaurants, all across the whole country?

Malaysian’s especially the older generations, are very fond of drinking hot drinks such as Milo coffee, Nescafe and kopi-o with their usual roti canai or chapatti while they have breakfast.

Teh tarik for example now costs RM1.00 a glass. With the increase of the latest price of sugar, according to calculations made, this popular drink will now cost the vendor RM1.003 to prepare. An increase of not even 0.03 sen. Should the mamak stall owner or restaurant owner envisage to increase your cuppa of teh tarik to RM1.20, do not hesitate to report him to the Consumer Association or the nearest police station to have action taken against him.

Malaysians, as a whole are a patient lot of people. In such situations, they tend to accept increase of 10 sen per cup of coffee or teh tarik with hardly no objections at all. I feel this is a wrong attitude to adopt.

What about roti canai? How has the increase of flour affected it? Currently, the price of a piece of roti canai in most mamak stalls and restaurant is said to be 80 sen. With the increase, the price of each piece of roti canai comes to approximately 0.802 sen.

With this calculation therefore, consumers and avid roti canai consumers should not allow this favorite breakfast of yours to be raised, say to 90 sen per piece. Sorry to say, businessmen are rather unscrupulous. They would like to take advantage of the public and raise the price if they possibly can. It is hoped, that readers will not permit this to happen.

Next, coming to the question of the increase of fuel or petrol by 5 sen per liter. How does it affect us?

With the announcement of the recent increase of petrol by 5 sen, RON 95 which most of us including me use, is now being sold at the pumps at RM1.85. While RON 97, which is large favoured by new cars, I presume is being sold at RM2.10 as compared to RM2.05. An increase of 5 sen.

If drivers feel, the minimal increase affects your petrol budget monthly, then by all means, change to using RON 95 instead of RON 97. Well, it is simple as that, isn’t it? What is there to complain?

It is only but a small increase anyway. By the way, it is said the price of petrol in our country is considered to be one of the cheapest in our region, even after the increase. Go to Singapore, which is just across the Causeway, and find for yourself what I am saying is the truth or otherwise.

The increase in the cost of essential commodities such as sugar and petrol, plus a few essential items such as flour, L.P.G. and diesel, as I said earlier, is very minimal.

Looking at the brighter side of things, the recent increase will result in an overall reduction of government expenditures will eventually allow investment in the nation’s future in education, community development and the creation of job opportunities for the people.

The recent increase of essential commodities as sugar and fuel, may not have caused much hardship to the people as a whole. But whether you are aware or otherwise, it seems to have caused some headaches or problems to the government itself.

The government has recently announced that foreign registered vehicles in the country, must now fill up with the dearer version of petrol which is the RON 97.

Starting from August 1st 2010, vehicles with foreign registration plates, such as vehicles bearing Thailand or Singapore registration plates, can only buy RON 97 petrol. This is necessary the fuel subsidy which the government currently accord to RON 95, are in fact for the benefit of Malaysia drivers, and definitely not for foreigners.

Unless and until steps are taken by the authorities to ensure foreigners do not benefit from this fuel subsidy, the country and the government will stand to be on the losing end. Our government’s effort to subsidise our fuel will then have gone to waste.

It is reported that enforcement officers, that as the 1st August 2010, be stationed at all petrol stations, particularly at border areas in Kedah, Perlis, Johor, Kelantan, Sabah and Sarawak, to ensure that petrol kiosk operators refrain from the ruling of not selling the subsidized RON 95 to foreign registered vehicles.

Domestic Trade Cooperative and Consumerism Minister, Datuk Seri Ismail Yaacob said, “Foreigners can no longer fill up RON 95 petrol, priced at RM1.85 per liter. Its sale is solely intended for Malaysian registered vehicles only. Foreigners can only be allowed to fill up with RON 97, which cost RM2.10 per liter”.

This brings about a very interesting situation. What if a foreigner should fancy eating roti canai at his favorite roti canai stall for breakfast?

After all, do not forget, flour is also being subsidized by the government. Will the stall owner refuse his order for roti canai then? Or will he be requested to opt for nasi lemak instead?

Anyway, it is left to be seen how the situation unfolds later on.

Now, coming back to the question of having enforcement officers stationed at petrol stations to ensure that fuel RON 95 is not sold to foreigners, I personally feel it’s going to be a big hassle. It may even be a mission very difficult to enforce.

Anyway, there is a saying, “If there’s a will, there’s always a way”. Nothing, they say, is impossible!

I feel the best way out of the above problem is to set up a third variety of pumps at out petrol stations selling fuel at a different price solely for foreign registered cars. Let’s suggest for instance the 3rd pump selling fuel, say at RM4.50 for foreign registered cars only, beginning from 1st August 2010.

Thus is settle the problem of selling fuel to foreign registered cars and vehicles. Short of banning foreigners from driving into our country, as allowed by the Geneva Convention of 1949 and 1968, there is in reality no other way to enforce the ruling strictly at all.

Ever since I was in Form 3, in my upper secondary days, I had always been interested in things involving politics. Way back in the 1960s, when appearing for the Higher School Certificate (H.S.C.) exam, which in those days was conducted by the University of London Examination Syndicate, I sat for the paper British Constitution, while doing the subject entitled Economics and Public Affairs paper.

My interest or love for this subject was the result of being an ardent history student while I was in school. For all this ardour for the subject of politics, I have for it, should go to the encouragement given by my history teachers, especially Mr. S.P. Subramaniam who incidentally I remember was my History teacher from Form 1 to Form 5.

Thanks to Mr. S.P. Subramaniam, I eventually got an A1 in History for the Overseas School Certificate way back in 1962. My affairs with politics above did not end there.

While attached to the Humanities Department at one local centre of learning in Pulau Pinang way back in 1980s, I took up International Relations (I.R.). I was indeed honoured to be under the good hands of Professor Chandra Mustaffar, the well renowned one time Malaysian opposition leader.

For your info, the above personality started the Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia political party way back in 1960s.

As I remember, though rather vaguely, while at Pulau Pinang, one of the elective subjects which I was offered was the subject of local government. Malaysian political scenario does not only involve Parliament, state government, but also local councils as well.

Examples of local councils include of course, Dewan Bandaraya Kuala Lumpur (D.B.K.L.), Majlis Bandaraya Petaling Jaya (M.B.P.J.), Majlis Perbandran Subang Jaya (M.P.S.J.), Majlis Perbandaran Klang (M.P.K.) etc.

For readers’ information, there are a total of about 150 local councils in our country. Local council authorities, such as the above, were actually set up under the Local Council Act. Unfortunately, I have forgotten when it was started.

The Director of the Road Transport Department, Datuk Sureet Singh, revealed recently, the authorities comprising Road Transport Department (J.P.J.) the Police, and the local council people, today, faces a colossal problem. It is said to be facing the problem of being unable to collect RM16 million traffic summonses.

Before proceeding any further with the subject, summons can be issued by namely 3 authorities to drivers or motorists. Those responsible for issuing such summons are the R.T.D, the Police and local council officials.

J.P.J. issue summons for using hand phones while driving, beating red traffic lights and not wearing seat belts. The police issue summons for illegal parking and speeding offences, amongst others.

Under the Subang Jaya Municipal Council’s jurisdiction, it can summon drivers who commit illegal parking. Traffic offenders can be given summonses amounting to RM80. Motorists are normally given a grace period. Motorists can be given the opportunity to request for a discount. The fines can be lowered, if paid early.

However, most motorists choose to ignore traffic summonses issued by local councils. Why does this happen? Simple because, summonses by such councils does not affect road tax renewals.

The M.P.S.J. says it issued some 17,000 traffic summonses monthly. Only 17% is paid up by motorists. The only way to solve this problem is to haul these offenders to court. But, as you know, this is a big hassle. There are limitations in terms of time and resources.

However, motorists beware! In a recent proposal, a briefing recently held with the J.P.J. authorities, it has been decided to make local council summonses online with J.P.J.

If an amendment is made to Section 17 (1) (d) of the Road Transport Act 1987, is passed at the next Parliament session in June 2010, local councils would be able to link up with the J.P.J.

What happens when all this happens? This simply means motorists will be blacklisted. They will have to pay up outstanding summonses before their road taxes can be issued by the Road Transport Authorities.

Regarding the non-payment of summonses to motorists, urban or town councils face the most problem. Parking issues are said to be extremely rampant.

The brakes on repeat traffic offenders by local councils seems to be coming to an end soon. Drivers and motorists beware! Your days as they say, are numbered. You cannot ignore summonses by local councils anymore. You have to regard summonses issued by local authorities the same way as summonses by the J.P.J. and the Police.

To end this article on local council summonses, I would like to enlighten readers about one thing. Being rather well versed with local councils and their rights, I have always made it a point to settle all summonses and parking tickets issued by local councils. My last encounter with the local council was with the M.B.P.J. authorities.

In or around 2008, I visited the M.B.P.J. headquarters in Petaling Jaya to setting 4 or 5 outstanding parking summonses. The Legal Adviser of M.B.P.J. has threatened to institute legal proceedings against me.

I appealed and received discounted amounts for fines imposed. Today, I still have receipts paid for parking fines in my files! As a lecturer for the 5 Hours course for new drivers at my institute every week, it is my opinion that I should set a good example for all my students to follow. I cannot do what they say in Bahasa Malaysia, “seperti ketam menyuruh anaknya jalan betul”. Colloquially translated into English, this proverb literally means, “like a crab advising its young not to walk side ways”.

In my last post, I wrote an article on “5 Things Malaysian Road Users May Not Know”. I am feeling creative today and thought of writing another 5 tips that may be useful for Malaysian road user. Here goes:

1) Parking machines’ failure to issue tickets.

Parking machines have from time to time failed to issue us receipts.

Although, we have often put in money for parking, at times, certain machines do not reciprocate by providing us the receipts we expect to receive.

Worst of all, some machines totally do not issue any receipts at all. In such a situation, what are we to do?

For such situation, what a driver can do is to write a note. Place it on the dashboard of your car. Inform the authorities, and in this case, the local council that you have paid for the duration of the time for parking. As to whether the authorities will accept your explanation is left to be seen.

In most cases, I presume, your appeal will be upheld. However, you should accept the fact that you could be summoned for non payment of parking dues.

2) Tagging along a small child on which side should a child be tagged?

I have often seen parents, especially mothers tagging along a small child with them. Unfortunately, some parents tag a small child with them, but what surprises me are mothers who do not seem to know the correct manner of tagging along their children.

When my own grandmother was yet alive, she used to remind us that when tagging along a small child, we should always make it a point to hold the child or our younger sibling with our left hand.

In this way, our younger sibling will always be on the inner most side. This provides added protection to the young child. The mother, father or even brother, will be on the outside.

Should any unforeseen incident happen, the parents or brother will always be the first to absorb the impact of a vehicle hitting or knocking into them. Think about it carefully. You’ll surely understand the reason behind my asking you to always tag along your child with your left hand. In this way, your child would be in a safer inner side of the road.

3) Disembarking from a vehicle without switching the engine off.

As a driver, I’m uncertain if you are aware that dismounting from your vehicle without switching off your engine is an offense. Under the Road Transport Act 1987, Circular K14 RTR, disallows you doing it and under Section 119 (2), you can be fined a tune of RM300 for this.

Therefore, in future, should you feel the necessity to disembark from your vehicle, albeit for a short while, you are advised to switch off your engine first and engage your handbrakes as a safety precaution. Failing which you might likely be summoned for an offense which you most likely never anticipate to happen.

4) Laptops in J.P.J. and Road Transport Department roving surveillance vehicles can verify your driving particulars.

Are you aware that J.P.J. officials, while on their rounds, have laptops in their vehicles which can easily verify under whom the vehicle you are driving is registered?

They can even find out whether the vehicle you are driving has a valid road tax or otherwise.

Likewise, offices in the car can certify as the whether your driving license is valid or otherwise. That’s how sophisticated the authorities are with modern technology that they possess today.

5) Road blocks to be set up under the auspicies of a police inspector only.

If you, all this while felt that a road block can only be set up under the auspicies of a police inspector, then you are totally wrong. The assistant manager of my driving institute, a former J.P.J. official advised me recently that a police office of any rank can set up a road block if and when deemed necessary. With this experience and year of knowledge, I am certain what he advised me should be right.

Hopefully, all the above interesting yet important things I have divulged to you in this article will make you a better driver. At the same time, it is hoped you have found this article to be beneficial and at the same time interesting as well.