The president of the Malaysian Automotive Association Aishah Ahmad has said that car prices are to be higher due to the low ringgit value and not because of excise duties.

This statement is strange to say the least. The price of a four-wheel drive Sorentino (Korean) is only RM40,000.00 in Korea but here it's almost RM180,000.00. How to account for this stupendous price differential if not for the duties?

This flies in the face of Asean Free Trade Agreement. It's meaningless to have Afta in place if the price of the commodities it is supposed to reduce still remain where they are. It's a mockery of the agreement.

For far too long, Malaysians have been made to pay for pet projects which do not bring direct benefits to them. Proton is one of the many. The poor kampung people are made to suffer even more by these projects simply because the money for rural infrastructure development is instead utilised for such mega-projects.

If the billions used to bail out failing crony businesses and to construct the Petronas Twin Towers, Proton, Putrajaya, Cyberjaya, the Bakun dam were instead used to build more roads, all our kampungs in Malaysia would have had access roads by now.

This surely would have lifted the living standard of our people. But lo and behold, the government is more interested in building symbolism rather than having real development for the people.

Anyway, I suggest that all Malaysians buy a house rather than buy a car. Don't buy a car for one year and see whether the car companies can survive or not. Malaysians should show our 'people power' in order to teach these big auto companies a lesson or two.

The people have been taken for a ride for far to long. Keep your extra cash for the children's education. Don't buy cars. Cars should be cheap, safe and affordable.