Hiking oil price

Quoted from a forwarded email:
Opposition Leader Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail has accused the government of being 'stupid' for repeatedly saying that our new petrol retail price of RM2.70 is low when compared to other countries in the region."As a raw oil producing nation, Malaysia should be compared with other oil exporters such as UAE (RM1.19 per litre), Egypt (RM1.03 per litre), Kuwait (RM0.67 per litre), Saudi Arabia (RM0.38 per litre), Nigeria (RM0.32 per litre) and Venezuala (RM0.16 per litre)," she argued.To compare prices with Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia is obviously flawed," the PKR president said in a statement today. . . .

. . . the PKR chief said it was common knowledge that oil companies were paying only US$30 for the exploration of each barrel of oil, and selling the raw oil for US$130 per barrel.This hefty profit, she claimed, has been enjoyed by oil companies for the past three years.

"Why isn't the government implementing additional taxes on the extraordinary profits of the oil companies, rather than choosing to increase fuel prices?" she asked.Wan Azizah said it was possible to sustain the old petrol price of RM1.92, or better still reducing it, if oil companies were taxed more, along with oil, steel and cement producers.

"Why are these companies so important to them, while the public has to suffer?" she asked.

She expressed concern that the government has spent RM40 billion for double-tracking railway project that interconnects Padang Besar with Johor Baru yet is reluctant to pay RM13-15 billion for fuel subsidies."Why did they not use the RM40 billion to build comprehensive LRT rails to fix public transportation system as an effort to reduce petrol usage?" Wan Azizah queried.

-end of quote-

I agree with what she said. Barack Obama thought of the same issue and solution too . read this, quoted from http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/president/19663634.html .. . Obama offered no new policies in his speech, which he read from teleprompters. Rather, he used the occasion to emphasize his economic differences with McCain and summarize earlier proposals. They include raising income taxes on wealthy individuals, granting a $1,000 tax cut to most others, winding down the Iraq war, tightening credit card regulations and pumping more money into education, alternative fuels and infrastructure such as roads and bridges. . .

Repeatedly linking McCain to Bush, Obama said, "our president sacrificed investments in health care, and education, and energy and infrastructure on the altar of tax breaks for big corporations and wealthy CEOs." . . . Obama criticized McCain for originally opposing Bush's first-term tax cuts but now supporting their continuation. He said he would place a windfall profits tax on oil companies while McCain would reduce their taxes.. .

here's my question: our government cries of inflation control - teaching her ppl how to save money save this save tat use less of this and tat... but ironically lifted the fuel subsidy (increased petrol price) which will indefinitely increase the prices of almost all other commodities and thus increase inflation. Ultimatum: the ppl suffer. I foresee tat in te near future more construction projects abandoned, more financial crises, more families renting houses (can't afford to buya hse - price increase), economy affected severely.

Why not increase the tax for the companies which profited from the soaring oil price???
Why are these companies so important to them, while the public has to suffer???