Some say the move is a must because the people can’t be subsidised and the government will end up subsidising more in the future. Some say we should use less car, and use the public transport instead. Some say car is just luxury. Some say the move is to cover up the rising cost of petrol. Oh not forgetting, the Prime Minister says that we have to change our lifestyle to cope up with the rising cost of petrol.

Well, this is what I say. Fuck That.

I personally think that this move is simply stupid, and I can predict that prices for goods will inflate at a high rate in the next few months. Oh wait, I guarantee that it will happen. Costs and prices are on the rise, and with the sudden hike of fuel, I am sure it’ll speed things up.

In the end, who suffer? Small businesses like hawkers or coffee shop operators. These people are already having a hard time trying to keep ends meets with the rising costs of other stuff, while trying to run their business, and to pay wages to their workers. A sudden hike in petrol cost will definitely kill small businesses like this. Business operators have to increase the wages of their workers because workers demands it due to petrol price hike. And to cover the cost of increment, business operators have no choice but to increase their sales price. It all happens in a vicious cycle, and I can say petrol can be the root of it because almost everything relies on it.

Let’s take an example. A manufacturer produces goods. Due to increase in petrol price, they have no choice but to increase their transportation charges to keep their profit margin at par. Now the goods is in the wholesale retailers hand, those retailers have no choice but to sell at the a higher price due to the higher transportation charges when they buy it from the manufacturer. Next, when a business operator, say, a coffee shop owner buys his goods from this retailer, he have to pay more because the retailer increased the selling price of the goods. The coffee shop owner uses his own car to get the goods from the retail store to his shop. And due to rising price of petrol and also more expensive goods, he increase the price of his drinks and foods in his shop. In the end, the one who absorbed rising costs is the consumer themselves. That is you and me.

As usual, the government say, “Change our lifestyle to cope up with the petrol hike”. Oh, and their famous “Our petrol price is still lower compared to other countries”. Usual bullshits, and I bet they’re going to say the same shit when they decide to lift the subsidy somewhere near the future. So, let’s see. If more people are changing their lifestyle, then most of them would be eating at home, right? Then, the coffee shop owner would have lose his business. He have no choice but to fry sotong his worker. Business slows down for the retailers and manufacturers. With no one buying your stuff, how do you expect the economy of a country to grow? This is just a really simple example, but it will happen.

A lot say the hike is inevitable. I do agree with this, and yes indeed, the government cannot keep subsidizing our petrol. But hey, all these 78 cents increase happens in less than a week. It started with they’re going to hold a meeting and discuss about the petrol subsidy. Then they say they will ban foreigners from buying our petrol. And just 2 days ago around 5pm, they announced an increase of 78 cents, starting 12am on that same day. That’s like less than 7 hours notice. Everything happened too fast.

So, let’s get back to the subsidy. Now that they’ve ease themselves with the 78 cents per litre of petrol, and they’ve expected to save 30 billion or so because of their action. Let’s see, what are they gonna do with the 50 billion? Send another idiotic space flight participant to space? Build the second eye of Malaysia? Put in more developement to KL? Build another twin tower, oh wait, perhaps a triplet tower? Hey, look at Sarawak lah please. What kind of developement we have here in Sarawak? And Sarawak has the lowest paid employee in Malaysia. Wow, me, as a Sarawakian should be proud of this. And all we get is 1 cent cheaper petrol than West Malaysia.

Enough my rant. I actually have more to write, but I’m very sleepy at the moment. Well, I’ll continue a part two if I feel like it

This marks the end of War #1. We managed to finish everything, and we only have 2 clients who happens to be not in Miri. Their submission is going to be late, and I’m sure we will have hard time dealing with them because obviously there would be a dogfight on who’s going to pay the penalty.

Tomorrow is the start of War #2. I have more jobs waiting for me, and the new deadline is 30th June. This time, jobs are tougher because we’re going to be dealing with people with business income. After working quite a number of customers with business income, and hearing all the rants from my seniors, I guess I can classified the different types of tax payer with business income:

1. Those who didn’t keep proper record. It’s either they’re too lazy, or they just don’t know how.
2. Those who do illegal business. And they deal everything in cash. And obviously, these kind of income isn’t recorded properly.
3. Those people who kept all the invoices, bills, etc, put them in one large plastic bags, throw to us and let us do the calculation.
4. Those who does proper records and filings. They summed up all their expenses and sales.
5. Those who does proper records and filings. And they even use computerized accounting system and these further ease up our job.
6. Those who does proper records and filings. They also used computerized accounting system. BUT, the bookkeeper happens to be a monkey in accounting. These kind of accounts are those that puts a crack on our head.

Looks like I have to prepare myself for a round 2.

If a guy who can’t play basketball were to coach a team, can their team win?
- No.

If a very good basketball coach were to shut his eyes and keep his mouth shut during a match, can their team win the game?
- No.

The same thing applies to business. It’s better run a business in the field where you’re familiar with. Don’t venture into something that you’re not familiar with, unless you have a mentor or a partner who is familiar with it.

Now if you’re running already running a business in the field that you’re very familiar with, then you should spend time growing your business. Your business will run down to the drain if you don’t spend time even looking at it. A business without someone looking at will turn into a chaos.

Well, it is said that business is about taking risks. No pain, no gain. Take no risk and take no profit. But for me, it’s more of trying to minimize the risk. Venturing into something new to you is very risky, unless you have someone with the expertise to guide you.