I like to add on to the letter from Mohd Zaki entitled Has everyone forgotten these dates? It seems to be a common notion that the latest happenings or news will overshadow the previous ones.

We tend to have a tendency to talk about the current issues rather than past ones that have yet to be resolved. Yes, the government continues to say that it is subsidising the fuel prices but is this facts true after some comparison with the latest commodity prices?

Probably the government will say that these are crude oil prices which have not yet been refined therefore they are lower than what we are paying. I will be glad if someone could clear the air on the price comparison.

What about the cancellation of a few mega-projects due to insufficient government funds? If I'm not mistaken, back in 1998, our country's reserves was about US$30 billion. But most recently the announcement was that we have slightly more than US$80 billion in our coffers. That's almost a three fold jump and it happened during the Asian financial crisis.

Is the government saying that times were better during the bad times as they were able to increase the reserves? Not forgetting that our exchange rate is higher than before the financial crisis. Probably that's why the government is able to bail out GLCs which are constantly in trouble while forgetting to cater for the 'rakyat's' basic needs.

What about clean water? What about good condition roads? What about a clean environment? What about upgrading the lives of those below poverty line? I'm sure all these will cost less than the necessary bailouts.

In return I'm confident that BN will have another majority win in the next general election. Well, if only these simple wishes are met.