It astounds me that the Umno Youth deputy chief Khairy Jamaluddin has spoken out strongly against fuel subsidies to apply to every Malaysian.

"I believe the rich can pay the market price or slightly lower than market price" for gasoline, he said in a speech at the party's annual congress.

It would be unfair to subject Malaysians who are higher-income earners to pay the full cost of fuel. Especially if we were to take into account the fact that by their higher earning capacity, they also pay more taxes in comparison to the lower-wage earner.

Their tax ringgit are effectively paying the wages of civil servants and funding government investments. Which also pays for the fuel subsidies.

Why doesn't Khairy bring up the fact that hundreds, if not thousands, of foreign-registered vehicles are coming into Malaysia every day to fill up their tanks at the subsidised prices?

It is grossly unfair that these foreign citizens, either Thai or Singaporean, be allowed to fuel up their vehicles at those prices. After all, they do not pay the taxes that every citizen of Malaysia is subject to. As such, they should not be entitled to privileges and perks paid for with Malaysian tax money.

Khairy said it would not be feasible to abolish subsidies, but the system should be revamped so that poor people can continue to purchase necessities at lower prices, while those who can afford it should pay more.

"The current system promotes wastage. Because we know fuel prices are so low, we tend to waste fuel," he said.

This wastage that Khairy talks about is inherently linked to the fact that tens of thousands of litres of Malaysian subsidised fuel is being driven into Thailand and Singapore everyday.