Don't Panic!

Is anybody panicking yet?

You know. Possible food and fuel price rises and the fact that the monthly pay packet can't hardly make ends meet.

But do the bozos elected to the Parliament care? Since the March 8 polls, we have seen political games within and without the Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat that have yet to answer at least one question.

That is, what the hell is happening with the Malaysian economy?

And whether we Malaysians have enough money in our pockets - notwithstanding the rather dubious strengthening of the Ringgit Malaysia which is more due to the weakening of the US dollar - to maintain some sort of a lifestyle.

Okay, folks in Selangor will get 20 cubic metres of water free. Newspapers report that rice prices are on the up and up due to the whims and fancies of 35 men who slurp soup and rice somewhere in Bangkok Others give ideas on savings.

The Siber Party of Malaysia (M) thinks that there is undue attention on rice prices. Rice is just a small component of the daily meal or the monthly expenditure in a household. Fact is, how much of rice can one ever eat?

Got to a banana leaf shop and try. They can give you mountains of rice, it isn't free, as they have already put in the cost in the meat, fish and vegetables consumed in the meal. The same scene in the Chinese economy rice shops or the Malay restaurants or the Thai restaurateurs with their little metal bowls of steamed rices at either 50 sen or one ringgit a pop.

That's rice. You don't have to eat it everyday. Like roti canai or char kway teow or bihun soup or whatever strikes your fancy.

Food is a major component of expenditure but there is others there that you can cut out to enjoy or maintain your lifestyle. I mean, do you really want to stretch your ringgit? Especially those in the city who constantly complain of low pay and high expenditures.

Cut out the mobile phone calls. The two mobile phones. The 3G service. The SMSes. See your savings. Cut out that unnecessary trips down the road with your car. Cut out the unnecessary splurge at the departmental stores or boutiques just because purple is in or beads are out of fashion and its time for other chunky jewellery.

Forget the 10 ringgit lattes and teas at the cafe joints just because there is WiFI service there. Or the banoffee pie, cinnamon roll, the tapas

Think about what you can save. And go save it.

Because the bozos in parliament don't care. One of the things they will do is to raise their own pay, get public funds to run their service centres and research teams.

That's our money going to make them debate better or rather speak longer. Talk is free. What we need is action. Err... like now!