vox populi small thumbnail 'When the youth starts to rise against injustice, the nation better pay attention. There is no stopping the youth.'

Students rally against hikes in Putrajaya, 3 arrested

P Dev Anand Pillai: It is good to note that finally the Malay students are rising up against a regime that seeks to curtail the mind instead of encouraging dynamism.

If students begin questioning, this country will be heading in the right direction. Weren't the PM and his cabinet the ones who said that they had no problem with students hitting the political scene together with their teachers?

Why stop, threaten and harass them right under the office of the leader of 1Malaysia? If this is 1Malaysia, the voting age should be lowered to 18 and students should be allowed to participate. Bravo to this group of students!

Anonymous : Every Friday prayers will now be followed with protests from concerned students and the rakyat throughout the country. Electricity rates hike is being held back, but my God, mambong fish cost a whopping RM8.50 per kg from RM4.50 previously. Water hike is to be 37 percent.

With this, the recent wage hike for all government servants has been wiped off. Bring down the prices or we will bring you down. Enough is enough.

AkuMelayu: Concentrate on your studies, get yourself good grades and secure a respectable job that pays a sizeable income. Then everything will be cheap for you. But get involved in demonstrations and protests, neglect your studies and let yourself be used by opposition politicians for their own political survival, you will waste your life away.

While you suffer, those politicians are living comfortably. Use your heads, students. Don't be a numbskull.

Anonymous: AkuMelayu, price hikes also affects students and everybody else, especially the lower income group. Most university students are from not-so-wealthy families. If they are from wealthy families, they will most likely be studying abroad.

The rakyat were promised that there won't be any price hike recently, but that promise has been broken. So who do you point the finger at now?

Anonymous2: Fifteen years ago when I started working, I received a basic pay of RM1,800 as a management trainee. Correct me if I am wrong, but today new graduates also get about RM1,800 as their starting pay. However, the prices of everything have gone up. There is something very wrong with the way the BN is running this country - rampant corruption, politicians enriching themselves at the rakyats' expense, etc.

The average graduate these days will be lucky to earn a basic living. Don't even think about owning a car or a house for the first 10 years. Even if he/she owns a car, it will be local Viva/Kancil/Myvi on a 7- or 10-year loan.

As for a house, don't even dream about it, especially if you live in KL.

Habib RAK: When the youth starts to rise against injustice, the nation better pay attention. There is no stopping the youth. They will be single-minded and focused on the task.

More street protests expected over price hikes

Frankly X'roy: Fuel was the catalyst that set alight the revolution that sent Suharto and his formidable Golkar out of office and into the dustbin of Indonesian history.

Will fuel also fuel the hearts of Malaysians to set ablaze the zeal we require to send BN to the dustbin of Malaysian history and create for ourselves a truly open, honest and thriving Malaysian society, void of greed and racist governance?

Anonymous: A price increase of petrol is a normal phenomenal in the world economy. Since oil is running out and demand is increasing, it is just a normal event. The most important is that we accept the fact that our sweet time has past, and it is time for Malaysians to work even harder.

If the Malaysia government continues to subsidise petrol, it will only continue to encourage the people to smuggle petrol to Thailand and Singapore. Subsidy is not the solution. Work hard and earn more, that's the solution.

Myop101: Anonymous, who asked the BN-led government to make empty promises? And what recourse will the rakyat have against this government in between GEs? We can't even have local government elections for crying out loud.

We want the federal government to trim its spending first; not raise prices by slashing subsidies. The fact that they keep incurring deficits since 1997 speaks volumes on the dire state of the nation's coffers.

Fairnessforall: The government is bankrupt due to all the corruption and squandering our money on redundant projects, so they need to steal more from the rakyat. When will the idiots who support BN realise that BN needs to be kicked out as soon as possible.

'Mahathir's posturings don't stand up to scrutiny'

Swipenter: TDM (Tun Dr Mahathir) is a man of expediency. He blames everyone but himself for whatever is afflicting the country. He is a chameleon and a very dangerous one. He has no hesitation to play everyone out when it suits him.

The Anwar saga and Lingamgate reveal much of his character - a vile, wicked and dangerous man.

Rolls-Royce: When did Mahathir have any principle, integrity, foresight, statesmanship, and sense of justice?

His principle is based on his own interest. His integrity is in the gutter - enriching and making all his cronies fabulously rich. His foresight is not beyond his nose - appointing all the wrong and corrupted guys to important positions and dragging the whole country down the drain. His sense of justice - yes, he committed no injustice, he never punched anybody on the face, but what his ‘ma-chai' (minions) did is a separate matter altogether.

His statesmanship - hmmm, let me see, since his ‘retirement', have you come across any well-respected country, international organisation of repute or international company that have invited him to be an advisor or to grace an occasion?

Yeap Cheng Liang: Dr M, you ‘mudah lupakah'? Your government paid millions of ringgit so you could meet with then US president George Bush. Remember?

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