Having identified one of the main sources of public disenchantment, the BN-led government, with one eye firmly on the Permatang Pauh by-election campaign, has cut the price of petrol from RM2.70 to RM2.55 - a reduction of 5.6 per cent.
This price change is clearly politically motivated. When they raised the petrol price in Malaysia by 41 per cent on 5 June, the price of Nymex Light Sweet Crude was around US$125 per barrel (on 4-5 June).
The closing price yesterday was US$121 - not much different from then - and now they announce a cut of 5.6 per cent? Tell me it has nothing to do with Permatang Pauh. Why didn’t they wait until 1 Sept, the date they had fixed earlier for “streamlining” oil prices?
For this reduction, therefore, Pakatan can claim victory. I can’t remember the last time the petrol price - or for that matter any toll or tariff - was cut. What goes up in Malaysia never comes down… until now.
I was half-expecting this - a petrol price cut on the eve of polling. This was always going to be their main trump card.
The sentiment on the ground was troubling for the BN. This afternoon I asked a mobile phone agent who runs a stall on the corridor outside a row of shophouses in Penang how business was doing.
She said it was down - and not just for her. “All the other shops here are saying that business is down.” When asked the reason for the slump, she explained, “People have less to spend now after the oil price hike.”
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