The government of late appears to be playing 'the bad and the good news' game on us. Typical of such heartless humour is to tell a diabetic who is about to go for a leg amputation - the bad news that "the surgeon would like to borrow his leg forever" and the good news that "the patient occupying the bed next to his is keen to buy his shoes".

This is what actually happened when the government gave the bad news that the price of petroleum had been increased by an unprecedented 30 sen per liter. Subsequently, it gave us the 'good news' that there would not be any increase in highway toll rates this year.

The first announcement has resulted in an all-round increase in the prices of essential goods and services whilst the second announcement is not likely to have any impact on anything at all. Our intelligence is being insulted most of the time.

The cronies and corrupt government servants and politicians are being given every opportunity to perpetuate their dishonest practices. For instance, the proposed issuance of discount vouchers for purchase of diesel would surely be the subject of great abuse not only at the point of distribution but also when some 'recycle' them to gain multiple benefits in the same manner they had recycled APs for importation of luxury cars as reported recently.

The fact remains that we are very much in a crony capitalism environment. The cronies and the capitalists are being given privatised projects, exclusive licences to operate their businesses, tax breaks and cheap currency advantages for their exports.

Consumers, meanwhile, end up with substandard infrastructure facilities such as sub-standard roads and flyovers, unsafe public buildings and even drinking water that have been polluted by sewage.

To add insult to injury, we have to pay escalating costs for them.