The government will not need to subsidise the consumer prices of petroleum products if the ringgit is re-pegged closer to its true value.

At RM3.80 to the US dollar, a US$45 barrel of oil means RM171 per barrel. The cost of oil, to us, will immediately drop by a third if the ringgit is re-pegged to the level that prevailed for about three decades prior to the 1997-1998 blip when the ringgit fluctuated freely between RM2.50 and RM 2.75.

Keeping the ringgit grossly undervalued has allowed inefficient companies to remain inefficient. On the other hand, keeping the prices of petroleum products reasonably low, with the attendant knock-on effects on the prices of all goods and services in the country, has benefitted the entire population.

The present give-away ringgit peg also means that we, as a nation, are having to pay dearly for imported goods and services and to service foreign loans and bonds. At the end of the price chain, it is the people who suffer for they have to sweat and toil even harder just to maintain living standards.

By keeping the ringgit pegged at its current artificially low level, are we not in effect also helping to finance the US budget deficit and its war-mongering ways?

Pak Lah, give us a government for the people rather than for the few inefficient exporters who have had enough time to learn to survive without financial crutches given at the expense of the citizens.