Have we Malaysians got our priorities right?

We have a car industry, supposedly as a catalyst for industrial development, but in effect, serves to maintain unduly high car prices. Just imagine, our government is working on car prices for the post-Afta period but the structure, for all intent and purposes, will be only to prevent minimum disruption to existing high car prices!

To be competitive, surely Proton has to increase productivity and quality instead of being continually dependent on government protection.

Then, we have the 'mother of all official secrets', the North-South Expressway contract , which is so one-sided in favour of the concessionaire that it cannot be shown to the public.

Instead of favouring the general public, our government has continually increased tolls for the highway. We were told we have no choice either pay more or extend the period for toll collection. An oft-repeated slogan of the government is that it is a 'win-win situation'. But for whom?

The privatisation of the nation's electricity supply resulted in contracts favouring the Independent Power Producers (IPPs) and other contractors. This effectively ensured higher rates for consumers.

Since telecommunication was privatised, our local STD calls cost more than international IDD calls. The social costs are immeasurable. Now, friends and relatives keep telephone calls to a bare minimum. Even middle-class people have to resort to SMS-ing to save costs.

Fortunately, thanks to intense competition, mobile phone charges have been reduced considerably. But there are still a great number of people living in remote places which cannot take advantage of this.

The privatisation of postal services resulted in increased postal rates to conform with international rates. Why can't we continue to enjoy the low rates? Suddenly we are told only white envelopes with printed addresses are allowed, resulting in 90 percent of our stock of envelopes being unusable.

A sum of RM200 million will be spent over the next few years for new postal machinery - instead of Pos Malaysia adapting to our present conditions, we are required to adapt to the postal machinery. And the higher postal rates will ensure that we pay for this so-called modernisation.

Now, steps are being taken to privatise water , a natural commodity which most people believe to be God-given and should not be subjected to money-making considerations. It should be the responsibility of the government to ensure an efficient supply at minimum cost.

Instead of taking steps to reduce the high wastage through leakages and pilferages, our government will gladly wash its hands by turning to privatisation.

In recent years, we have come to accept privatisation as a solution to all our problems.

But from what we have experienced, privatisation seems to be the ruling party's best means of ensuring their continued control through a system of patronage and symbiotic relationship with crony businesses, all at the expense of the public.

Our housing industry seems to favour the rich, as shown in Selangor, where forest reserves were degazetted for development, but not to build low-cost houses. The menteri besar of Selangor even went to the extent of building a cluster of luxurious houses for his exco members!

Have they no conscience? On the one hand, excuses were given for not building enough low-cost houses, yet priority was given to build high-end houses.

To attract successful Malaysians from abroad, high pay and incentives were generously offered yet there were few, if no takers. Instead of luring home those from abroad (most of whom left because of the unfair system which still exists), wouldn't it be better to offer scholarships to deserving cases, irrespective of race, with a bond to serve upon graduation?

And if our government is prepared to offer lucrative pay and tempting incentives, why can't it liberalise its system of promotions to encourage deserving people to stay on? In a few years' time, we would have enough doctors, engineers, scientists and so on.

I can understand Barisan Nasional's reasons for continuing their self-serving policies, but by going along and not complaining, I get the impression most of us have also lost our common sense.