My Dear Pak Lah

My Favourite Comic

Pak Lah, you know, hor, we Malaysians are very cham already. We all lub you, we all know you are doing your very best.
What to do, hor? The Americans, the british, the japs, the chins and the khiling, disturb our economy only. They don’t want to invest in our place, hor. They say we don’t know how to do business, we only kasi naik harga barang only.
I know it is not true, you got many ma-chai to take care, hor and all want to be putera-putera and puteri-puteri, so difficult to take care, hor.

You know, ah, pak lah, we know you really, really work very, very hard, sampai you look so sleeping everyday, people just don’t know.
You have to take care of the whole Malaysia, we all know you cannot leave your ma-chai alone, basket, they will all steal us bankrupt, hor.
Some more, hor, you have to play tat-tat with you lovely wife, hor. At your age, please take care, hor. Don’t hurt you back, okay.

I know actually, hor, you are a very nice person, you know, hor, in the last erection I actually wanted you but when I went to the polling station, so many people said you are not good lah, I was so confused, so I just hantam saja. I simply cross and made a prayer for you. I actually forgot how to vote as you say. So sorry, hor.

Aiya, the Sabah monkeys making a lot of noise again, hor.
The WWF also cannot do anything, you know or not. I think you can control them, kan? You already give them some peanuts, see all of them sokong you now, kan?
Aiya, still got one, wants to bite you, what you want to do, ha? I don’t know if you can hantam him with the ACA and bring him to court with your ma-chai now.
You see, hor, your ma-chai is not very clever, lost so many big-big cases already, kan.
I think never mind, lah. There are only two of them but be careful, hor, I think you should give them bigger peanuts, you know like the coconut, okay? Hopefully they choked, then we can have another erection, nice kan?

You know, ha, you must trust me because I am your fren and I am very good, I don’t talk about ketuanan, I love all kinds of religions because I don’t know how to choose, I love all kinds of people because I swing both ways, see, you must trust me lor.
You know or not, your other people’s son is very sneaky, hor. Maybe he only married your daughter because of you, so be careful, ha. You can trust me wan, because I am the cham people, mah.

You know or not, ha, people said your deputy and his wife did very nasty thing, I pun takut to say it here. You know, ha, people also say, his ministry buy goods also at very high price, something like Maggie for the price of Kancil. You know, hor, it is no good for your nice image.
Aiya, how to get rid of him, ha, he also got very very strong backing from someone who left your office. Aiya, really susah, hor? I am still cracking my head, to help you, no promise, ha.

Aiya, your ma-chai are really susah lah, all they want are project-project saja.
All your bajet also have to go to them, somemore not enough, have to increase somemore for them in your plan.
So susah, hor. I really pity you, your kepala pun pening.
You must take care of your health, pak lah. They say gingko and viagra are good for people of your age, you must try some, ha.
See, I am always on you side, not like those smart ass ma-chai, always want to kachau saja, hor. They say you flip-flop like an acrobat, you cannot decide.
But I know, what to decide, hor? Must know only how to distribute the money, kan?

You must help cham people like us, can ha? People say you got plenty power, you can give plenty money to your ma-chai to keep them quiet. You must be very powerful, hor. Can you help cham people like us by reduce the tax, get rid of the toll, reduce the car price, protect our savings, reduce the barang barang price, can or not, ha?
I hope you can, because your ma-chai say you are very powerful and you can do anything, wan. Thank you, hor.

Malaysians Must Unite!

Most traders are ruthless people and would try to make more profit if given the slightest chance.
Unavoidable inflation will eventually deplete our incomes and savings, given the recent increase in energy price, brought on by the Malaysian government.
No traders will want to be left out and would like to get ahead the soonest possible. This includes those from ‘teh tarik’ shop right to the recent behaviour of the Petrol Stations.
Consumers can sympathize with some of the traders, as their basic cost had actually increased and it was just cost plus the competitive margin of profit.
They are not only facing the stiff competition, they have to explain to their loyal customers and apologize for it, as they have no monopoly on their type of business.

Coming back to the petrol stations in Malaysia, they can be considered the privileged lot, as no one can simply set up a business in fuel trading, they are all selected!!!
To say that the members of the Petrol Dealers Association is losing will be ridiculous. They said they are no longer accepting credit card for payment, as it cost them 2.7 cents per liter now, which still works out as 1% mathematically. Some may not be earning as much as before but given also the fairly large percentage of those who pay in cash, in actual fact they may end up earning more.
For those who use credit card, they would normally fill up their tank, meaning a higher value in each transaction and thus higher return.

Overall, the petrol station operators should appreciate a higher fuel price, as it means higher earnings.
These lot of members definitely do not belong to the group of poor buggers.
They have the privilege to be among the first few to have a better earning to overcome the inflation. What is there to complain!
It is the normal wage earners who are suffering at the moment. There is no guarantee that they may get salary increment at the end of the year.
The members of this traders association are just being unscrupulous and insensibly trodden the consumers when opportunity present itself.
It is a known fact that with a flip-flop government like in Malaysia, it pays to complain and threaten the government, be it commercially or politically.
What happened in the latest announcement by the government to the petrol station operator is, the commission is increased by another 2.7 cents to compensate for the credit card commission, while the increment in credit card commission is actually 0.78 cents.
We would have imagined that the commission at previous petrol price had been compensated for the card commission.
One just wonder, if there is any purpose in increasing the petrol price in the first place. How much further, those money saved from reduced subsidy can be stretched, it may all just end as a futile exercise. This is what the government appeared to be very good at.

It is about time the consumers must unite, at a time like this we must boycott those traders who are unscrupulous in their method of doing business.
I still remember vividly in the mid 1980s, there was a shortage in subsidized diesel but no such shortage in commercial/industrial diesel in which was sold at a higher price.
Among the stations operating then, were Shell, Mobile and Esso.
During this crisis, in Esso station you would always find that the subsidized diesel exhausted but right next to the Esso station you would find a skid tank selling commercial/industrial diesel.
Since that day, I had sworn that I will never step into another Esso station again and I will also try to convince my friends or anyone I come across to do the same.
I urge the consumers to take note of those stations that do not accept credit card and in future just boycott it.
We do not need such type of people in dealing with the essentials and we can all sleep better at night.

In another front, I can’t help but fumed at BN management committee meeting on Tuesday, wanting SAPP to explain and a show-cause letter will be issued.
What is there to explain, if the committee still do not understand what is at stake at the moment with Sabah, they don’t deserve to be in government.

The outstanding issues in Sabah are glaringly clear, what they do now is just talk, talk and talk, plus all kinds of aspiring lips services.
About time, Sabah should give the Federal government a show-cause letter in which is long overdue.

Do the UMNO stooges in Sabah have the guts and will power to safeguard the state or afraid that they will be investigated by the ACA.
You see, Sabahan politicians are quite amateurish compared to those old rascals in the central and there can be allot of skeletons under the federal safeguard.

SAPP Political Move Is With The Spirit of Sabahans

Has it ever crossed your mind or noticed that Sabah state assembly cabinet members are called ministers and not councilors as practiced in Peninsula states of Malaysia.
This is because when Sabah entered to form Malaysia with Sarawak, Singapore and Malaya, they joined as equal partners and with the same sovereignty and autonomy. Its spirit is expressed in the 20-point Agreement.
In fact under point 13 of the 20-point Agreement, the name Prime Minister was mentioned for the Sabah ‘state’ government.
We have to understand the circumstances that Sabah joined Malaysia in order to appreciate their dissatisfaction at the moment.
While Sabah had fulfilled its part, the same cannot be said with the federal government. It is common knowledge in Sabah that it rights had deteriorated and its political landscape had changed.

This is what Wikipedia has to say about the matter:
The 20-point Agreement was written for the main purpose of safeguarding the interests, rights, and the autonomy of the people of Sabah upon entering the Federation of Malaysia. It was originally envisaged that Sabah will be one of the four entities in the Federation, the others being Malaya, Singapore, and Sarawak. However, as times passed, Sabah and Sarawak ended up being merely one of the 13 states in the Federation

There is no doubt that the 20-point agreement is wilting and if the present Sabah parliamentarians were to do nothing about it, more changes and deterioration will happen.

SAPP, a small Sabah political party of the coalition in government, made a significant move and declared its dissatisfaction by voicing no confidence on the Malaysian prime minister.
Which is totally right, as Sabah had been burdened with illegal immigrants, unsubstantiated new Malaysian identity to foreigners who did not qualify, poor infrastructure, unfair distribution of wealth, high unemployment rate and being the poorest state in Malaysia, despite its wealthy resources. Their earlier calls to resolve these, particularly the Royal Commission to look into the illegal immigration problem, were ignored or given the delayed treatment.

What followed this declaration, we suddenly find the Anti-corruption Agency is opening the file to investigate the party president.
We can be highly suspicious of its timing and can only conclude that it is political blackmail.
Apparently, this was something happened 12 years ago and the party president was then investigated and interviewed by them.

Why all this rhetoric from the ACA all of a sudden.
Is it a timely reminder to potential parliamentarians not to step out of line? If such is the case, their integrity is at stake. They have a duty to the Malaysians and the country.

Further to this, the same conclusion can be arrived at most of Sabah parliamentarians. Most of them had been vocal in demanding Sabah rights and wanted more emphasis and demand to know why Sabah security and immigration problems still persist. All of them suddenly fell silence and became non-committal.
It is sad to note that our Government Agencies, paid from our tax money and resources, are used as political tools for those who walk the corridor of power.

There is little wonder why Malaysia is imbedded into a 3rd world country and classified as such. We just do not have the right people to get us out of this shit at the moment.

We just need a total overhaul!

Can A Mosquito Party Fight For Sabah

SAPP president finally made his call, demanding in no uncertain terms that Sabah woes must be addressed, in yet the most assertive way by demanding the PM resignation.

We take comfort to such a move and anticipate concrete effort will be made to address the immigration, poverty, better equity to oil revenue and autonomy in state government.

The federal government had shunned it duty to provide for Sabah, instead involved in local politics to determine the type of state government it wanted.
They wanted to perpetuate their strong hold on Sabah in whatever means possible, including changing the state political scene which we saw had already happened.

The federal government should be more involved in the macro economy, politics and policy of Malaysia, making national decision whereby we can be competitive in the world economy.
To the contrary, they are more interested in kampong politics, using unfair federal policies which were in place to arm-twist the state government and its people into submission.
By having such attitude, the federal government is just not matured or capable enough to handle the world. They are a threat to Malalysia.

It can be said that SAPP president, Datuk Yong Teck Lee is greedy in making this political threat.
But then who is not in this political world, especially in a country like Malaysia,
I am glad that such greed had been taken correctly and inspired him to right the wrong for the benefit of Sabah.
Less can be said of others, from the same state, made strong threats but changed directions when given some personal benefits. This are the type of selfish politicians we must rid off, they do not look into the larger picture and only aim for personal gain.

Now we can only hope, some positive outcome can happen for the benefit of Sabah & its people.

Fuel Subsidy Rebate

Post offices open its doors to handle the fuel subsidy rebate yesterday. As reported by mainstream media, there is a mad rush to get this generosity from the government.One may ask; what is the hurry? why the mad rush? After all the government did say you have the whole year to claim what you are entitled.

We are only talking just a small portion of the car owners and these are those who had just recently renewed their road tax i.e. April & May. Come July the 1st , I cannot imagine how big the crowd will be, it will probably stretch the queue for a few kilometers.
Some post offices probably did not expect such mammoth crowd, as reported some of them ran out of forms and worst of all money as well. This is to be expected, as no one would have expected such a huge turnout.
When it come to something free, better still like rebate, it is typical of Malaysians, they just cannot wait to grab them. But normally free offers from any sales outlet has conditions and normally limited to a very short period and you cannot blame the people who try not to miss out, thus the mad rush.

In the case of fuel subsidy rebate, why do we have to rush, we have the whole year to get back what we are entitled.
Unless there are other reasons:
The Malaysians must be very much affected by the fuel price, such little relief is a very welcomed savior.
Or
The Malaysians are afraid that the government may change its mind and withdraw the rebate. One cannot tell for sure, as was said before, early this year that there will be no price change in fuel until the end of this year and that was before the general election. Not only there was a change but a record of more than 40% as well.

Is Malaysia Gambling With Its Oil Resources?

The MP from Kalabakan in Sabah is on the prowl again, jumping onto the bandwagon on criticism of the government’s petrol hike and allowances cut on ministers.
All seem sincere and with dedication to eradicate wastage and proper suggestion to the government, as what MPs should.
The unfortunate thing is; what will be his motive this time.
In the last episode on Sabah illegal migrants, just a month ago, he was among the first to make hue and cry on the government to do something, failing which under no uncertain term, he may not support the government, so it seemed.
When it came to the gist of it, the MP from Kalabakan was conspicuously quiet and among the group of MPs from Sabah, they were against the formation of Royal Commission. Instead, retrace the old path of parliamentary committee to look into it.
The only difference in this committee is the superlative adjective of ‘high power’.
Something good did come out of this trying exercise. The MPs in Sabah are given additional allowances to line their pockets.
While every citizen is trying to tighten their belts, what can be his motive this time; perhaps the extra Rm400K doesn’t mean that much anymore, when you take inflation into account.

As usual, now we have our attention directed elsewhere. Has the ‘High Power’ parliamentary committee been formed yet? Or is there any attempt at this moment? We are starting another cycle whereby history again, will play itself out. As always being said, Malaysians forget easily.

In another related matter on petrol hike, they were discussion on why Petronas is losing heavily on subsidy as admitted by its chairman.
The record in crude price, it seems is not doing Malaysia any good as suggested by Petronas chairman.
What can be the possible reason, since Malaysia is a net exporter in crude oil.
The chairman also said foreign oil companies are profiting on the subsidy and draining away our money.
This indeed is very strange, as foreign distiller and retailer also have to get the crude from the world market.
The only possible explanation to this is, Petronas could be gambling on our country’s security in oil.
Could they be speculating on our crude price and had committed our production way back at a much lower price? Of course now that the price is at its peak, they will lose out on the difference and thus the difference is something extra that they had lost in their little misdemeanour.
We will never know if such is happening unless there is more transparency and the reasons for it.
If such is true, with our crude committed into the future at a much lower price, the present peak price is inducing worldwide inflation and thus we are doubly caught.

Remember what happened during the financial crisis in 1997?
Malaysia’s dabbling in foreign exchange that had cost us billions; we can only hope such is not happening this time. More important now is do we still have the same people managing our security resources, if those people are still there and with the same mentality, the chance is we would be in the same kind of shit as we had in 1997.

Is Malaysia Doing The Right Thing, We Can’t Curb Fuel Usage And Discourage Alternatives At The Same Time

I am still brooding over the statement by our Malaysian government that because of the crude steep price increment, we can no longer afford to maintain the subsidised fuel at previous level, to do so will only mean we have to sacrifice development fund and failure to maintain the price of other essentials.
The whole picture is fuzzy, there is lack of transparency and there is no way we can debate and suggest to help otherwise.

However, I am still not convinced that our government is telling the truth.
Malaysia is a net exporter of crude oil, we use up less than what we produce and the surplus is exported.
In fact we exported our sweet crude at much higher price and imported the lower quality crude.
To say that we are subsidising the foreign oil company, like shell is also not true, in fact very naughty of Petronas chairman to even suggest.
Foreign companies buy crude from international market, in fact they are extending credit to the Malaysian government by selling petrol at below cost and have to wait for refund.

Why I say, we are advantaged by high crude price, let us take an example:

When the crude is at USD60 per barrel, our pump price is at Rm1.92, we had allocated budget for, say A amount for development and other subsidies for essentials.

Now with crude at Rm130 per barrel, the government said we can no longer can maintain our pump price at Rm1.92 and to do so we would incur B amount for the same development and other essentials.

Now, B is larger than A. So the government said we need to increase pump price so that A can be equal to B. Sounds logical.

But Malaysia is a net exporter of oil, say we have a net surplus in trade of X billions at crude price of USD60 per barrel and at higher crude price X will be larger. Agree?

Let’s say, there is a country in the middle-east, their only revenue is from oil and the rest of the other requirements are imported.
They produced just enough to meet their requirements and at crude price of USD60, they are able to meet their budget with their profit of X billions in crude export.
Now that the price of crude had gone up to USD130, is the Malaysia government telling us that this middle-east country won’t be able to meet their earlier budget and requirements?
If this is the case, why did this middle-east country want to increase his price of crude in the first place? And also, if this is beyond this middle-east country control, it would have to increase production just to survive but there is no sign of this in the world of crude oil production.

I don’t think our government is telling the truth, we should have more to enjoy and the pump price can be maintained if they wanted to.
This may be more of political move to win back support since the disastrous last election.
It will be despicable if this is what our government is doing, to disrupt our daily lives for political gains.

Another theory may be we are threatened to reduce subsidy by the developed countries, countries that are importing our cheap goods because their own production is not as competitive.
Their NGOs and governments had been accusing and pressurising us as perpetuators against ‘green world’, health problem products, labour exploitation, minimum wage, exchange rate manipulation, etc.
For all we know, it is their grand design, in manipulating the price of energy to overcome their disadvantage.
They may already have secret deals with major oil producing countries who guaranteed them certain volume of crude at a minimum price. The scene is played out by their speculators in the commodity market and they make no effort to control this speculation.

Is our government playing into their hands?

Yet again, the world economy is dangerously coupled with mineral oil as energy.
We need to de-couple it; we urgently need alternative sources of energy.
These sources are available everywhere and unexploited because we just take the easy way out.
As for Malaysia, palm oil may turn out to be our saviour in future. The government should give incentives to this development and not try to introduce deterrent, like windfall tax to stifle the industry.

FUEL PRICE HIKE - As usual, we will go on a merry go round and back to square one and no one is any wiser

Lately every blogger is taking pot shot at our Malaysian government, mainly on the price hike in fuel and energy.
Do they know what is happening? The Malaysians are angry. We had been given ever changing figures that the government is doing its best to contain the inflation. Their inflation rate was 2% before and lately with the 40% hike in fuel, they said the inflation can only be felt at 4.5%.
We all knew how much we had to pay, to survive before and it cost more than 2% in inflation. It is not going to be 4.5% with this 40% hike in fuel.
At one time, they said the subsidy in fuel was at 45 billion and in a matter of days another leader said it was 75 billion. These people in government just hide behind their veil of secrecies. There is little wonder why every Ahmad, Arumugam and Ah Chong try to guesstimate if the government is taking us for a ride, at a time like this, to pile on the confusion and make more money for their cronies. As the saying goes, there is no opportunity without disaster.

When the price hike was announced, it said it would save the government 17 billion in subsidy and towards the end of the week it had gone up to 28 billion.
It seems even the people in government is having a guess. For all you know, even at USD150 per barrel of crude, no subsidy is needed at the old pump price. Apparently nobody knows exactly how much Petronas is making except the PM and a privileged few in the company. The government kept on saying it is inevitable not to raise the pump price because of the price of crude now.
It is so difficult to give us a breakdown and exactly how much it cost for the refined product. This lack of transparency and to certain extends in honesty, will keep the public guessing.
This is not the first time that the government wants to hide information from the public. There must be something sinister that cannot see the light of day, as had happen before.

When the government increased the price of fuel and electricity, they never consulted the public but rely on their bunch of half witted cronies.
When the serving public were to increase the prices, they stamped their feet and forbid them to do the same.
The reason being, these essential goods suppliers are still enjoying the subsidy and have no reason to do likewise.
What is not considered, there will be a general rise in the cost of living and these people may not be able to carry on with their trade any longer. Particular reference is taken to the public transport providers.

Everybody seems to agree that fuel hike is inevitable.
The price of crude is much higher than before, the difference has to come from somewhere.
The government think their present method is the best.
What we have now is uncertainty to every level of goods & services, and everyone at the moment is either trying to take advantage of it or to plainly survive.
No one knows the fair price level for every individual goods & services.

At a time like this, the government will create a bigger mess if they still allow monopoly in our economic system.
Like in the transportation sector, free competition should be allowed and the price will find its level very quickly, likewise for any other sectors where there is exclusive monopoly but again this may destroy the government effort to protect the underprivileged group.

Today, the government is again talking about giving further subsidy to certain group of services.
The government is working overtime with sacrifices and announcement will be made next week.
The more they are trying to repair the damage they had started the more loopholes they are going to create for unscrupulous people to take advantage.
Now it is onus to the government as how to stop it. As usual, we will go on a merry go round and back to square one and no one is any wiser.

A COMPETITIVE STICK UP?

The domino effect has started since the Malaysian government hiked the fuel price of around 40% on 5th June.

The lorry transportation association had announced an immediate increment on the transportation charge of at least 45%.

We can expect, the overall effect can be heavily felt in the coming months; with less money to spend, the whole internal economy in Malaysia may slow down drastically. An average working person in Malaysia has an income of around Rm2000 per month and with this increment, the government is removing at least Rm500 additional spending power from him, i.e. 25%.
Food and other essentials will also take its toll and we can anticipate a slowdown of more than 35%. Businesses that had cash flow problem will have to close down and individuals that have just enough to meet their credit commitment will default.
We can only hope that there is no financial fallout from this move by our government.

Malaysia is a net exporter of petroleum. No doubt, this product may not last forever, but given another 6 years or so, we still have the time to correct our strategy for our future requirement and stability.
We were jolted to the reality that our basic necessity investments were neglected.
There were a huge sector of our people trained with the wrong disciplines and capabilities; our industries had the wrongly emphasized.
In fact, what we can do, can be done in any 3rd world country but only maybe slightly better, there is nothing to shout about. The industries we have were non-competitive and will be the first in-line to be affected, should there be any adversity.

For what reason, that Malaysia cannot attract high calibre form of investment (FDI).
The people that had been in the government should know it by now. It takes more than 25 years to feel the effect now. We had the wrong set of policies then.
We had not emphasised on what malaysians and our climatic conditions allow us to do best, we copied developed country set of data, which was already in the stage of phasing out. The car industry itself was the biggest mistake of all.

We could have opted for hefty income tax increment to solve our problem.
There must be quite a bit of personal reasons as to why the government is not taking this approach.
The majority of industries are already not competitive enough? The government wants more billionaires in Malaysia? Or these rich people will just run off to another country? Or the government has to protect the cronies.

The world runs on meritocracy, protection, incentive and fair distribution of wealth, any effort to hinder this will affect the country and render it uncompetitive.
Malaysia will continue to suffer if the mindset of its lawmakers does not understand this.

Fuel Price - Malaysians are Cheap, Cheapest in the Region!

It had finally happened, earlier than expected. It seems that there is a controversy on the implementation date but at the end, it has to be immediate, meaning the PM is still on the driver seat. The way it is implemented may just unseat him as well, let us just wait and see.
At a time like this, after the hefty fuel price increment, whatever the PM said in consolation seemed so hollow, he can keep his sympathy. Whatever he did or advised, had so far nothing in line to raise the productivity and improve the income of the people, to meet this rising cost of living.
Nothing is changed, encourage the subsidy mentality, you can actually make a living with a few unserviceable junks(cars), as long as you have it registered and pay the road tax to claim the subsidy. It may just end up, people who are cars/junks collectors being subsidise to have this hobby. The subsidy encourages non-productive usage of vehicles.
Last night, TV7(local television station) made a survey on whether the law-makers, especially the cabinet ministers should walk-the-talk and change their life style. The response was 98% that the ministers should lead by example. The PM made excuses to the increment in fuel price (up to 40%) and that we should change our life style by adjusting to the inflation expected. This also includes using public transportation. Let us see if our ministers use public transportation and have their Nasi Lemak for breakfast at the 5-foot way or in a makeshift canteen under the tree.
The government only implement measures to collect more from the public and encourage unproductive usage of subsidy. For those who live and spend meticulously are left to further hardship and unprotected. Whatever you had saved for a rainy day is further eroded by at least 20% by a stroke of the PM’s pen and the PM is silent on how to address it. Maintaining the interest rate of 3.5% is ridiculous by bank Negara, unless it is out to help those who live beyond their means.
A working person would travel at least 50 km per day, meaning at least 3 litres of petrol and that will cost Rm2.34 extra per day (with price hike of 78 cents per litre), about Rm70 per month or Rm840 per year. It is a double whammy, not only with this extra cost in fuel, now the person has to face raising cost of living as well. The fuel price as it is, before the hefty increment is already a burden in comparison to the income of the ordinary worker. To say that our fuel prices are still the cheapest in comparison to our neighbour, is the worst load of rubbish that ever come out from our elite ministers and they kept on saying it, as if all Malaysians are idiots.
Our investment policy must be very wrong. Not only will our neighbours come in to fill up the petrol tanks but inefficient companies (FDIs) also come in to take advantage of our energy price. The subsidy to a large extend is enjoyed by the FDI companies. If these FDI companies are here just to provide employments and to use ‘slave’ labour but uncompetitive in world market, we can do without them, there is no need to polish the pride and say we attracted so much and so much of FDI every year. This, to a certain extend is confirmed by the government in saying that we still among the cheapest in the world in energy cost.