Ka-ching! The government cash register rings in RM4.4 billion by means of an adjustment in the price of fuel. But this money is hard won as public furor over the hike is not abating just yet.

Predictably, those breathing Putrajaya's rarified air reckon that further PR exercises are the best way to deflect proletarian disenchantment (a very thin atmosphere interferes with thought processes, you see). Their PR spin takes us into the sphere of Envo Diesel - 'our very own biofuel' that is 5% palm oil and 95% diesel.

Envo Diesel (B5) was launched Tuesday by Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi in the Petronas-bankrolled administrative capital. Twenty-five government-owned test vehicles will tank up on the B5. One day in future, we pray that Protons can run on coconut juice as well.

But in the immediate present, does the Envo Diesel help ease our pocket any? No, it's the same price 'as regular diesel, at RM1.98 per litre', reports The Star on March 22. Goodness me! The last we were aware, diesel was up to a mere RM1.58 per litre (a Freudian slip in the newspaper's Page 4 misreport, doubtless).

But in any case, the slavish media coverage of the biofuel event is a promising sign. It signals that the government is still in damage control mode and that our loud protests are making dents in the Barisan Nasional carapace of arrogance and indifference.

'Sudah jatuh ditimpa kereta'

More so than many other countries, cars loom large in our national life. It's a very significant investment and maintaining this mobility is proving even costlier.

One road-user whom I shall call AP (Abused by Proton), is triply pained by the price hike because he has to commute a fair distance to work, travel daily on behalf of his company, and what's more, his other half holds a job in a different state.

In a new twist, AP says 'Sudah jatuh, ditimpa kereta' (Malay proverb loosely translated as Heaping calamity upon suffering) because he has the grave misfortune to drive a Proton Iswara.

As if petrol, toll and parking are not enough to drive him to take up a second job, his Proton is like a black hole sucking cash reserves for its repair.

On the very day after he took possession of the car from the dealer's showroom, its rear-view mirror fell off ... just like that, with nobody and nothing touching it. 'Wrong-sized screw', revealed the mechanic after fixing the mirror back in place.

The Proton was barely a week old when the air-condition gas leaked all away ... again, just like that. 'Compressor not compatible', explained the mechanic. And we ask why repairmen specialise in Proton. On yet another occasion, the car lightly grazed a kerb and the front bumper immediately detached. One can only conclude that the Proton is a veritable Calamity Jane cartoon.

AP inked a seven-year bank loan for his designer Proton which looks like a drawing of a box on wheels, and sketched by a seven-year old. Today, he still owes the bank RM29,431.50 after paying two-and-a-half years on the hire-purchase loan.

Even if AP wished to sell his Iswara and use the promised upgraded public transport, he couldn't afford to. Two separate used car dealers have offered him only 15k the car's market value today.

A new Iswara currently goes for RM32,880, a RM6,000 drop compared to when AP bought his extremely ugly edition in mid-November 2003.

The on-the-road 39k he paid for his Iswara could have (dollar-for-dollar had he lived in the UK) gotten him an E-Class Mercedes or a BMW 5 series. Or two Honda CR-Vs, or three Minis, with change to spare! Instead AP drives a cartoon car.

Change lifestyle, tighten belt

A lady, whom I shall call Kak, says since the price of petrol doubled, household finances have been further stretched and the breadwinner has had to increasingly work overtime. The family stayed at home during the last school vacation recently and may have to forgo weekend outings in future as well.

For AP and Kak, transport expenses gobble up a huge chunk of their total expenditure. Car prices are distorted and hyper-inflated. Parking, toll, and now, petrol are exorbitant. They are left with little purchasing power or disposable income. Unlike their parents at a comparable age, their lifestyle is hardly comfortable. Decades ago, both their fathers - among the early batches of bumiputra professionals qualifying from English universities - enjoyed a higher standard of living.

Honest fixed wage earners nowadays work harder and longer but have less to show for their labour. And while they're running hard just to keep up, the pace of inflation has outstripped all but rising sons (in-law) and the well-connected. It can't be denied that the value of the ringgit has persistently gone down while prices have gone relentlessly up.

Neighbour Singapore provides an easy benchmark to measure the performance of our respective governments in the economic field. In his February 2006 budget speech, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced a 'Progress Package' to share S$2.6 billion (RM6 billion) worth of budget surpluses with all Singaporeans. "First, the government will share the fruits of growth with all Singaporeans through growth dividends. All adult Singaporeans will get growth dividends ranging from $200 to $800, with larger amounts going to those who have lower incomes and stay in less expensive homes. The growth dividends will cost the government $1.4 billion," said Lee.

"Second, the government will reward low-wage workers for work through Workfare Bonus. Those who earn $1,500 or less per month through regular work will receive Workfare Bonuses ranging from $150 to $1,200 in two portions," said Lee. To read more, click here .

If reading is painful, then spending ringgit on the island republic is even more so. When the two currencies divorced in the 1960s, they were at parity (1:1) but today it's at S$1:RM2.30. In the intervening 40 years, Singapore - with hardly any natural resources - has forged ahead while misruled Malaysia (swimming in oil) is caught in a quagmire of our rulers' making.

Dumb and dumber

The cynicism over the government's recent action and reaction is understandable. Its policy over the past two-plus decades has been to aggressively push private car ownership and promote national cars which are 'subsidised' by hapless Malaysian drivers. Suddenly in an about-turn, it promises to deliver a better public transport system lacking in the two-plus decade period. So please don't blame the wary public for remaining stubbornly suspicious.

To justify the petrol price hike, the government megaphones have - true to form - trotted out the line that our prices are still lower than elsewhere by converting other currencies to ringgit.

Unless we are frogs living under the proverbial coconut shell, and unless we have coconut juice between our ears instead of common sense, we might just swallow that flimsy fly-bait.

Converting the ringgit to other currencies for comparison defies logic. It serves no purpose in this context. Granted that factors like tax structure, tax relief, accessibility of housing and medical aid, and even public transport efficiency do impact on how far money can stretch.

But conversion doesn't figure in the equation for the average Joe earning an income in one particular country and spending it in that same country.

Simply consider what a person earning RM2,000 can buy in Malaysia. What can he do with US$2,000 in the States? Look at the dollar-for-dollar comparison below.

It's a small world

The American doesn't require ridiculous seven-year loans to buy a quality car. Malaysians, on the other hand, are paying through our ringed-noses for goods and services. Furthermore, it's expensive to service bank loans and credit cards when we have to borrow to buy. We have among the highest car prices in the world. I daresay we have the most number of toll concessionaires per car.

These facts notwithstanding, the sitting prime minister has chosen to emulate the past PM's authoritarian 'Shut-up and Put-up' modus operandi in tackling the recent episode.

Pak Lah asks the rakyat to stop questioning his cabinet's pronouncement on improving public transport using the RM4.4 billion of national oil revenue.

Almost in perfect sync, Dr Mahathir Mohamad asks that people stop questioning Proton. Says Mahathir: "The sale of Agusta at RM4 is permissible because Proton only loses RM400 million and it is a small (amount) since the company is worth RM5 billion. So shareholders should not question this." MV Agusta is the Italian bike maker bought by Proton sold a year later for the grand sum of one euro.

In remarkable Bolehland, Proton's losses are 'only' RM400 million and this RM400,000,000.00 is reckoned to be such a 'small' amount. It makes you wonder where, in their scale of things, does 30 sen stand? Like a droplet in the Petronas oil slick and our beloved leaders insist they feel our pain. Yeah.

World's biggest ketupat

Size and relativity, and values too, take on a Dali-esque sheen in this country. Addressing grievances over the petrol hike, our government charges us to tighten our belts. Leadership by example, starting with Umno Youth, would be ideal. Not two months ago, the Malaysia Book of Records listed the wing's towering achievement - creating the world's longest line of kompang to herald the Umno Youth Arts and Culture Festival in Johor.

One thousand six hundred colourfully costumed participants beating kompang lined both sides of a red carpet 950m long at Dataran Teluk Danga to greet Hishamuddin Hussein. The newspaper reports failed to mention if the Youth Chief wore full regalia and carried his famed Panca Warisan keris. How much money went into organising that grandiose feudal fest?

An identical streak of self-aggrandisement is apparent from the names bestowed upon national cars Proton Satria (warrior), Wira (hero), Juara (champion), Waja (mighty), Putra (prince), Perdana (premier) and Hicom Perkasa (valiant). All that chest-thumping and Proton is trumped by a car called Mini in worldwide popularity and sales.

And who really wants a Proton? Not Volkswagen which balked at a proposed partnership. Mitsubishi? Over the past two years, in March 2004 and Jan 2005, Mitsubishi Motors Corp divested blocks of Proton shares totalling an almost 16% stake, which was taken up by drum roll please Khazanah Nasional, the government investment arm!

You'd think it's high time to stop using taxpayers' money to prop up that cartoon cut-out, caricature of a car. Demonstrators agitating for Petronas to open its books should also demand that government-linked companies like Proton be equally accountable to the rakyat. We would hope that with the National Automotive Policy, Proton would no longer find it so easy to take the rakyat for a ride.