While many have praised the efforts of privatisation and corporatisation in Malaysia, to the general public it means higher cost for our day-to-day amenities. Some who have close political connections become multi-millionaires overnight as a result of the privatisation efforts by taking over what was once owned by the public.

We used to pay our local municipal " cukai pintu " for services rendered which included sewage management, drainage and rubbish collection. Today, we pay the same amount of " cukai pintu ". But on top of that, we pay Indah Water a fee for cleaning our sewage. Then we pay the infamous Puas (a privatised Jabatan Bekalan Air) for turning clean water into supposedly drinking water.

Many have even wondered how their water bills have escalated by 30 percent. Puas has engineered it by extending the billing period. Before they use to bill us for exactly two months. My last bill was for two months and 11 days. That eleven days incurred an extra 17 cubic metre of water which pushed it to the next rate of RM1.70. So Puas has now earned an extra RM28.90 by just extending the billing period.

What rights do consumers have? What recourse? None.