I deeply symphatise Lee Fei Dao's grumblings on his/her inability to afford the sleek Civic. We can start to ponder on the cost of mobility of a typical Malaysian and wonder if our counterparts in other developing countries within the same GDP per capita range bracket as Malaysians suffer the same problem.

The fact is, the Malaysian government levies too much taxes on the average Joe to move from point A to point B. Our artificially adjusted mobility demand-and-supply curve systemically affects the Malaysian economy and standard of living in a very negative way.

A typical Malaysian entry-level white-collar worker will have to fork out more than RM500 a month to settle his or her loan on a subcompact Kancil within six years. This is exclusive of the annual road taxes and highway toll fees. Our foreign counterparts with equal disposable income and purchasing power parity will laugh at us if they know how much we have to spend to purchase such a tiny underpowered car.

To afford a mid-sized sedan which lasts for about 10 years, the typical Malaysian worker has to fork an amount which can costs more than an apartment lot. Believe it or not, an average Malaysian car owner will spend more money on vehicle ownership than on home ownership in his entire life, thus redefining Malaysia's own Maslow's pyramidal hierarchy of needs.

In line with Pak Lah's insistence on governmental transparency, the rakyat should know how the revenue collected from road taxes, import duties and excise duties are spent in enhancing the transportation comfort of the rakyat. Artificial burdens imposed on transportation needs hamper economic efficiency and promotes negative externalities. Why has the average urbanite have to pay an enormous sum for annual road taxes and exorbitant car prices?

We know our country has one of the highest traffic fatality rates in the world, and most of the statistics come from motorcyclists and occupants of subcompact-sized vehicles. A spokesperson for a world- renowned highway safety institution says, 'You can never repeal the laws of physics; a smaller, lighter vehicle is always at a disadvantage no matter how many safety features are built into it'.

Deaths and injuries cost millions of ringgit per year in terms of medication costs and lost productivity. Huge excise duties on cars prohibit the low-income group from owning vehicles that do not expose them to life-threatening risks.

The Swedes, whose long-distance driving patterns and urban-rural demographics are more similar to us than the Japanese, have one of the world's safest traffic records, thanks to the large, safe sedans they drive like Saab and Volvo. This combined with proper road systems. Without the loathsome excise duties levied on larger yet practical vehicles, those who previously afford Kancil can now buy the Avanza, and those who previously could the Avanza can look for the Innova.

But nowadays, scenes of people driving polluting off-road trucks such as the Mitsubishi Storm on the tarmac are pretty common thanks to our lopsided vehicle tax structure which favours these ladder-framed gas-guzzlers that are likely to kill others in crashes over efficient wide-stanced, monocoque-framed sedans which are taxed excessively.

It is imperative for the government to put the rakyat's money to where it belongs. The government can claim that fuel subsidy will artificially create a false sense of the oil demand- supply equilibrium and shift the advantage of poorer people to the rich that own cars with bigger engine capacity.

But the government must give equal emphasis to abolishing the artificial burden imposed on the rakyat's mobility needs. The second principle of Islam Hadhari stresses on fairness (adil) and trustworthiness (amanah) of the government. Adil is defined in Islam as putting things where they should be.

It is time for the government to revamp the national transportation policy to ensure the amount the government spends to improve the rakyat's mobility woes among the urban and rural population reflects the amount the government takes from the public from various transportation taxes and duties. The road tax should be enough to cover all transportation infrastructure.

The rakyat can then use the money saved on countless highway toll payments and excessive car loan repayments for other things and this will eventually lead to higher national purchasing power and a better quality of life for all.