Mum's the Word for Government Toll Charges

We seem to be operating in some kind of Orwellian fantasy world when the government has to brief news editors on how to "soften" the bad news of imminent toll increases of between 10 to 50%.

Are the authorities hoping that the taxpayers are stupid and wil not realise that tolls have indeed gone up when they experience more money being sucked out from their wallets on a daily basis?

The authorities need to come clean and let the public know what is in those gilt-lined toll agreements that are top secret like the water supply agreement in Selangor that allowed the favoured company to increase rates by 15%.

It should start with the agreement for the North-South Highway as that is the mother of all crony contracts which is still a mill-stone round the neck of Malaysians and was the harbinger of all subsequent crony deals.

Maybe they will never allow such deals to be made public - not in a million years as long as the BN remains in power. They must all be forever clouded like the water supplied from the tap in Selangor.

Maybe there is some secret chemical in that drinking water that causes people to become delusional - some people can proclaim the state to have attained fully developed status and the population can accept that the present government can act in their best interest.

So bring on the toll increases. The way the public has been squeezed with price increases this year is a major reality check that all is NOT well with the economic management of the nation.

Photo: Murky dealings indeed!