The Federation of Malaysian Consumers Associations (Fomca) also cited the RM1.57 billion profit obtained by Telekom last year to show that the price hike is actually a 'massive con-job' legalised by the Energy, Communications and Multimedia Ministry &38212 in other words, the government.
With this move, Telekom, is again digging into the pocket of every consumer in Malaysia, just as they did a few years back when the local call went from a flat rate of 13 cents to the now three sen per minute, citing unproven and unverified statistics that most of the local calls averaged less than three minutes.
Indeed, the changes continued to enrich Telekom tremendously but its efficiency remained poor and attitude, arrogant.
Our elected government chose to turn a blind eye and deaf ear to public complaints by allowing the phone tariffs to hike up along with petrol prices and toll while pouring billions to bail out ailing companies like Malaysia Airlines and Renong.
As I see it, the increase in tariffs has implications in the long run.
Communication among Malaysians will suffer, along with the countrys dream of becoming an information and Internet-savvy society.
The poor becomes poorer, especially those who live in rural areas and depend on the phone for communication.
I feel that the 'rebalancing' move is a step backwards for us. Monopoly is still deeply entrenched — at least for the energy (read Tenaga) and telecommunication (Telekom) industries in Malaysia.
My question is how ready are we for globalisation?