Why are we running everything to the ground? Today it is about cooking oil shortage and the use of recycled bottles to pack the oil. Earlier it was water rationing. I am sure, most of us have experienced, at one time or another, inconveniences such as shortage of diesel, sugar, flour, eggs, chicken, beef, rice, and other essentials before.

It is strange to me that as one of the most ‘governed’ country in the world, we are always running short of this and that. Just look at the number of regulating agencies and enforcement officers we have. They don’t seem to make much of a difference when compared with other countries with no such outfits.

I am not talking about natural catastrophes here like floods, typhoons and earthquakes that cause supply disruptions. The problems we face are so ‘man-made’, ranging from sabotage, pilferage, corruption, exploitation, profiteering, smuggling, arbitrage, cheating, taxes, wasteful spending to meagre wages. I urge you to identify any problem we face today and i am sure you are able to pick up the relevant factors highlighted by me here to explain it.

Don’t blame industrialisation or population growth, water contamination and potable water supply disruption is an issue very much related to incompetence, corruption or even sabotage. Two weeks ago it was the Semenyih River, today it is the Linggi River. When is this baloney going to end?

Don’t blame the various subsidy programmes for the people. It is our inability to manage smuggling, corruption, arbitrage, and collusion between business people and public officials. How did our subsidies end up benefiting foreigners, exporters and those who are in the position to arbitrage rather than the consumers?

Don’t blame the Goods and Services Tax (GST) per se. It is our inability to manage prices which have escalated beyond the GST rates, again due to incompetence, cheating and profiteering.

Don’t blame toll rates, electricity tariffs, parking charges, Internet access fees, and university tuition. It is our inability to regulate and control monopolies, collusion and their exploitation.

Don’t blame falling oil prices on our fiscal woes. It is our profligate and extravagant way. Ministers and senior officials get too many perks and privileges in this country. Government contractors, suppliers and consultants get too much profit and compensation for doing little. We have a big national budget but it delivers only a small output, if you get what I mean. We pump in more money, but there is no corresponding increase in goods and services.

Don’t blame our high cost living on lack of price control or enforcement alone. It is the falling value of our ringgit. Price control and enforcement can’t enhance the value of the ringgit. Proper monetary policy management, including appropriate interest rates, money supply, efficiency and productivity can.

Don’t blame stringent loan conditions imposed by banks, blame low income or income decoupling from prices of homes and cars. Loans are not incomes. We are only postponing the problem if we dish out loans to borrowers who have no means of paying it back.

Don’t blame the US presidential election or Donald Trump as the incoming president. These are mere excuses for global excesses to realign and to find their fundamental levels. The centre of gravity has shifted. US power and influence have long waned. Trump will not make a significant difference. The US is just a ‘bottomless pit’ consumers and the supplier of US dollars. Has anyone visited China lately?

We must get the fundamentals right; the rest will fall into place.