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Petrol Subsidies

Found this piece I wrote on 22 May 2010 (three years ago) about petrol subsidies. Looking back, I was pretty naive and didn't know much. Hopefully I've improved a lot since then. Not even sure whether I agree with everything that past-me had written.

I sent it to the Borneo Bulletin, in which they published on their 'opinions' section.

I commend the Government for initiating the project where fuel prices are set to the normal commercial pricing on May 24. It helps people just understand how much the Government is subsidizing its country, whether it be on food or petrol. It also shows just how much the Government is babying its people.
Its about time people should stop being breast-fed. The Government invests billions of dollars subsidies, valuable money which could have been used in education, medical facilities and other proverbial necessities. One in which is public transport. One of the reasons people use private vehicles is because of the lack of efficient public transport. Because of this, the Government is forced to decrease the prices through subsidization  This is a vicious cycle which will never end unless some sort of initiative is done to combat it.
One such initiative is to permanently set the petrol prices at the commercial level (or at least subsidize it less). But, before this is implemented public transport must be improved. This will of course, be rejected and even hated but we have to stop being dependent on money that isn't even in our hands. Surely the subsidization on petrol cannot be sustainable.
By improving the public transport, we are allowing better usage of the roads. There will be less vehicles around meaning less accidents. More people will be needed to drive these public vehicles so there will be more access to jobs for those looking for it (which we saw at the recent career expo). 
But improving public transport does not merely mean adding more taxi’s and buses. It will also mean adding transport that are handicap-able friendly (which relates to me on a personal level), investing in an efficient ticketing system (unlike the current method).
Aside from the infrastructure improvement, it is about time we started considering in the possibilities of walking and/ or bicycles  Learning in International School Brunei, we are taught to always be environmentally conscious. Using other sorts of transport will not only be beneficial to the environment, it will also combat obesity which is a major problem in Brunei. We could create lanes or areas where only pedestrians are permitted. This will reduce the reliance on oil, meaning the Government wont have to subsidize it so much which in turn will allow them to use the money for other important things.
Acknowledging just how much the Government is paying to allow its people to keep its current standard of living is very important. It allows us to see just where we can improve upon things. Implementing all the above statements will be easy for the Government, but the difficulties are bared in the people’s initiative to follow through, which I'm confident, will.