Government Screwing Up Durians As Well
Durian people say that today an “important” meeting is taking place between the Government and the durian growers and durian processors. People can even be liwatted over durians. This is another case of “orang yang tak tahu apa benda pun pasal niaga” getting involved in messing things up again (or getting fed with Musang King for life).
First of all, a little recap. As we all know, many stage bus operators in the smaller towns have stopped their services or are stoppinmg their services. They have been running at losses and they cannot survive anymore. Is that so? Is that really the case?
What happened to Sri Jaya Bus, Uttam Singh Bus, Yellow Bus, Patt Hup Bus, Len Seng Bus, Foh Hup Bus, Selangor Omnibus, and so on? These are well known stage bus operators who operated stage buses in Penang, Kuala Lumpur, Melaka, Tampin, Selangor and other places. But most importantly, for decades, they had been providing fairly good services to the rural people. People could go from A to B. What happened to all these bus operators? Many of them are coming to a stop.
The bottom line is, you can think you are being very clever, but if you mess with the market, this is what will happen – the bus services come to a stop.
You think you are being clever, you mess with the fish wholesalers and what happens? You make their operating costs too high. They make losses. So they will not sell fish anymore. Fish prices skyrocket, siapa jadi miskin dulu? Takkan kita nak makan babi? So the Government flip flopped. The fish wholesalers went back to work. Dont impose ridiculous rules on the fish wholesalers.
You mess with the Hire Purchase Act (HPA), the used car dealers’ cost of doing business went up. The risk borne by the used car dealers also went up. Then what happened? The used car dealers stopped buying used cars. If people cannot sell their old cars to the used car dealers, the people will not buy a new car.
So new car sales died. This happened just a few months ago. Dah lupa ke. Then the Government flip flopped, amended or did not implement the HPA amendments – and things have returned back to normal.
And it goes on and on. Yes 30 year old school buses must get off the road. But give them enough licenses, give them cheaper buses (without AP). Only then you can put a gun to their head and say ‘Change your buses’.
But when nothing much has been done to improve their cost structure, and you still put a gun to their head and say ‘change your buses’ the guy simply will not run his school bus anymore. He does not have money to change his bus according to your timetable. So he has to pull his bus off the road. Bottom line : no school buses. The school children and their parents suffer. Parents have to become chaueffeurs. Menyusahkan orang saja.
So the Government flip flopped. The Government postponed the requirement to change the 30 year buses. It will not make any difference. There are reasons (in this country many of them are artificial) that determine the cost of running any bus. As long as these costs are artificially high, the bus operators will operate at very thin margins. Putting more pressure on their margins will result in buses being pulled off the road. Bas tak ada. Siapa jadi miskin dulu?
SPAD has become quite a spud over the stage buses. They dont know what to do. (Read on – the solution is simple). SPAD is gearing itself up to oversee the RM26.0 billion MRT project instead. Not drive down to some local bus station in Tampin or Alor Gajah and sort out the problems being faced by the stage bus operators.
Someone came up with an idea that teachers should work 9 am – 5am. Why? Sakit hati ke tengok cikgu sekolah balik rumah pukul 1 tengah hari? I guess the cikgu threatened to vote for the Opposition. This idea too was dropped. Another flip flop.
To solve the stage bus operators’ problem first of all it is important to just understand this part – Bas dah tak jalan dah. Boleh faham ke?
