I was shocked that the price of oil had shot up by more than 40% recently. Clearly there is no justification for this as Malaysia is an oil producing nation.

There is now an urgent need for the nationalisation of our oil industry. A paradox is occurring in Malaysia caused by the inflation of oil prices - a select minority is getting rich in Malaysia at the expense of the majority.

Once again our government has caved in to the greed of its cronies. We have seen this scenario before when the government implemented the toll system for our roads.

First they placed tolls on inter-state highways. Then they became greedier so they placed tolls on highways linking towns within the same state.

As the greed increased, roads within the same towns had toll booths erected on them as well. Then tolls started appearing close to people's homes such as near residential areas and shopping areas.

People had to pay tolls to go to work, to go to school, to go to the family clinic, the mall, hospitals, universities etc. Tolls were popping up willy-nilly everywhere.

Even recently, there was a confrontation when a toll company closed an alternative road and forced the residents of a housing estate to use the tolled road.

The greed of our government and its cronies is beyond belief. Once, the proceeds from the sale of the public welfare lottery scheme was for charity. Then they decided to privatise this social welfare lottery scheme and now profits from it go to private individuals.

The people of Malaysia are being made to pay for the wasteful habits and greed of its leaders. Protectionism of Malaysia's failed car industry has resulted in skyrocketing car prices.

Malaysians are paying double for their cars as compared to other countries. Our leaders engage in wasteful and unnecessary extravagant projects such as the Twin Towers, Putrajaya, purchasing of submarines and jet fighters, sending astronauts into outer space and compulsory national service.

The government's priorities are all wrong. The number of elderly people begging on the streets has risen and we choose to neglect our old folk who are too old to work and whose children are too poor to look after them.

Compare Malaysia to many countries in Europe which provide pension benefits and pension funds to its elderly instead of engaging in expensive endeavours which don't benefit the people.

In reality, Malaysia resembles the communist countries where the pride of the nation supercedes the welfare of the people. This status quo is no longer acceptable.