The latest round of fuel prices increase is unacceptable and an insult to the people of Sabah who had given almost 100 percent support to the Barisan Nasional (BN) in the last general election, thus enabling the coalition to stay in power according to Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) stalwart Datuk Tham Nyip Shen.
"The people of Sabah would not have imagined that this what they would be getting for supporting the BN in the last election,"
The announcement on Wednesday of the fuel prices hike came as surprise to the people, especially after Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Datuk Sharir Ahmad had earlier on the Government would only announce a new scheme for the fuel subsidy in August!
Thus the announcement of the latest and steepest fuel prices increase consider a "major mistake" by the BN Government. People in Sabah believed that the move was made hastily without fully exploring other measures to mitigate the impact of the global oil price increase. The SAPP think-tank chief, pointed out that as compared to Hong Kong and Singapore, Malaysia is still very much lagging when it comes to effort made to improve public transport.
Federal Government must not simply resort to increasing the fuel prices while failing to improve public transport services in the country. The latest fuel prices increase would certainly inflict more hardship on the people, especially those from the lower-income group.
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