I've received an email from a friend about the things being said below. I don't know who wrote it, but it was good, credit to the one that wrote it.
Not that I am trying to brag, but I could be considered a rich kid in my primary school days in the late 1950s and early 1960s. I received pocket money of 20 cents a day whereas most of the other kids would get only 10 cents or less. I would cycle from my home in Bukit Kuda (near Bukit Raja in Kelang -- so named because, before WWII, our family used to own the land around there; whereas Bukit Kuda got its name because of the horses on the hill of course) to Meru, so the 20 cents was necessary as a cold drink cost 5 cents and I needed another 5 cents for my mee goreng. That gave me a balance of 10 cents to splurge on pineapples, which Meru was famous for. A whole pineapple cost 5 cents. The surplus 5 cents I would use to play tikam-tikam, a sort of gambling game where you pulled a piece of paper off a board and you won various prizes depending on what was written on the paper -- sometimes it would be a toy gun, plastic car, and such rubbish.
I first `hit the road' in 1966, exactly 40 years ago. I was then 16, so I could legally own a motorcycle licence. I could not obtain a car licence until I was 18 though. By then my pocket money had increased to 10 dollars a week (maybe worth 100 ringgit today), but it would never last the week as I was on the road most of my waking hours. (You must be joking if you think I spent my free time studying for my exams).
My first bike was a 90cc Yahama, which I later upgraded to a 100cc Twin when the 90cc got too battered up because of the many crashes I endured. In those days, this would set you back about 1,000 dollars, 10% of what you would have to pay today. Also, in those days, Malaysia had not gone metric yet, so we still calculated everything in gallons, miles, miles per gallon, and miles per hour. Petrol was 1 dollar a gallon or roughly 23 cents a litre. With 10 dollars, I could ride my bike all the way to Penang on Saturday morning and be back in Kuala Lumpur by Sunday evening in time for school the next day. I of course could not afford to pay for hotel rooms so our motorcycle gang would sleep on the stone benches along Gurney Drive, which was then `Millionaires Row'.
Penang was famous for its `grass' or ganja, which was sold openly along Penang Street and, in the 1960s, not yet considered a `drug' -- and therefore not a serious crime. Even policemen traded in ganja at one dollar a role that could last a whole day and could be shared by half a dozen guys and gals (it was safer buying ganja from policemen, if you know what I mean, as they did not arrest their customers). In fact, ganja was not any stronger than a Camel or Lucky Strike cigarette so the mind boggles as to why ganja is now banned while Camel and Lucky Strike are still legal. But bringing ganja across to the mainland was a crime though (we did not have the required APs), so we had to be contented with enjoying it on the Island rather than risk getting caught by Customs. Well, Penang was a free port then and it was certainly `free' in many aspects.
My first job in 1970 was an apprenticeship with Volkswagen. My salary was 105 dollars a month, a lot of money in those days for a 20-year old. We must remember that the purchasing power of money then was ten times what it is today, so 105 dollars is equivalent to RM1,000 or so today. Suddenly I was flush with money. The fact I lived with my parents in Jalan Riong, Bangsar, helped as I did not have to put any money aside for rental or food, though I still had to pay for my lunch in the workshop canteen. The second year, my salary increased to 120 dollars. It would have been 140 for the third year and 160 for the final year, after which I would receive more than 300 dollars if I passed my apprenticeship exam. But I left in the second year because I refused to wash the cars that had been submerged in the flood. My supervisor had given me a toothbrush with which to clean the cars. I retaliated by hosing down the cars instead and got water in the engine while the inside of the car became a swimming pool (Volkswagens can float on water, in case you did not know). My supervisor flipped and sacked me on the spot. I walked out waving and smiling to the cheers of the entire workshop that hated the Indian supervisor they dubbed `Black Hitler' (very racial, I must admit, but it was a German company).
I was in fact `overqualified' as an apprentice. Apprenticeships are for form three failures, those who did not qualify to go to form four, whereas I had an MCE qualification (then called GCE O-level). I could have gone to England do my A-level but my father thought sending me to England would be disastrous considering my `wild' lifestyle. He preferred me closer to home where he could keep a watch on me, not that he was very successful at doing so.
In those days, with an MCE qualification, you could get employment as a trainee officer with a bank or as a probationary inspector in the police force at more than 300 dollars salary a month (what would be RM3,000 plus today). After three years, when you passed your internal exam, you could become a confirmed bank officer or police inspector at maybe twice the salary. But none of this interested me. I was only interested in motorcycling around Malaysia and sleeping under the open sky beside the sea.That was life in Malaysia 40 years ago. All you needed was 300 or 400 dollars a month to get by. I got married earning that much money and even owned a car at the same time, which was cheaper than owning a wife. A 100cc motorcycle cost 1,000 dollars. Since I was `rich', I of course had a big bike, a 650cc Yamaha, which cost an `exorbitant' 3,000 dollars, a `ridiculous' price to pay for a mere motorcycle (you could buy a Volkswagen for twice that). Just before I got married I sold the Yamaha to buy my first car, a used (second-hand) Holden Torona. I traded that in for a Mitsubishi 1600 after I crashed my Holden on the Federal Highway and landed on the other side of the road (luckily it was a Holden and not a Proton, if not I would not be around today to write this article). The brand new Mitsubishi cost less than 10,000 dollars, amongst the most expensive car in its class.
When my business saw success, I bought my first Mercedes Benz. It was a used or second-hand 240D (diesel) which cost me 30,000 dollars. I needed a diesel because I was travelling a lot and was clocking about 100,000 miles a year. I would drive to Johor in the afternoon, have a dinner meeting in Mersing, leave for KL around midnight, attend a meeting the next morning, leave KL that same afternoon, and be back in Kuala Terengganu in time for dinner. I was then in my 20s so I did not need much sleep.
When Malaysia experienced a diesel shortage to crisis proportions in the late 1970s, I sold the 240D for the same price that I paid for it, 30,000 dollars, and bought a new Mercedes Benz 200 petrol for 37,000 dollars. Later, I traded that in for a BMW 728i, which cost me 85,000 dollars. I used that for awhile after which I traded it in for a Mercedes Benz 380 SE at the insistence of Cycle and Carriage, my partner in our new business venture (their German engineer had refused to step into my BMW when I fetched him at the airport). This cost me 125,000 dollars, the price of a Japanese car today. But that was over 20 years ago.
And why, you may ask, am I telling you all this? Well, this is just to demonstrate the purchasing power of money then compared to today. What most of you are earning today is ten times what I earned then. But what I earned then went a long way. Today, even with your higher education and ten times higher income, you can hardly make ends meet, let alone enjoy the perks I did then. And don't forget, today, you need to spend RM400,000 to get an overseas university education to earn what we earned then with a mere form five qualification. With a university education, we could earn a starting salary of RM8,000 to RM10,000 in today's money value. But there was no motivation to go to university when we could save two years in form six and three years university, a total of five years, and in five years our salary would be equivalent to a university graduate just starting out (but passing some internal exams would be required first).
Has the 30 sen increase in fuel prices upset you? Well, don't get too upset. Even if they did not increase the price of petrol, or decided to reduce it again, you would still not be any richer. Today, if you earn less than RM3,000 a month, you are still poor even if the price of petrol did not increase. You can't buy a motorcycle for less than RM1,000 or a good quality and fast car for less than RM10,000. You cannot own a Mercedes Benz for RM40,000 or a top end BMW 7 series for RM100,000. You cannot fill up your tank and drive to Penang or Johor and back for RM40. You cannot buy a single-storey house in Subang or Bangsar for RM20,000 or a two-storey home for RM45,000. If you send your kids to England, you need RM400,000 over three years and RM1 million if they decide to do medicine. Coke no longer cost 20 cents, nor does a cup of tea or coffee. A trip to the supermarket to fill up your cart would set you back RM400, more than a month's salary in the old days.
Okay, forget about comparing Malaysia then to Malaysia today. Let us compare Malaysia today to UK today.
My sons live in Manchester -- been there more than four years now. They earn UK £5 an hour. If they work 8 hours, that would be £40 per day -- they work more hours than that though, sometimes 10 or 12 hours, so they make more than £40 per day. With this salary, they pay their cost through college and since they share a two-room apartment at £320 a month (which they pay weekly at £80) their living cost is quite manageable. In a month, each of my sons takes home more than £1,000, sometimes even up to £1,200.Forget about converting all this to ringgit. Let us just calculate everything based on £1 equals RM1. This is because that same job that earns you £1,200 in Manchester will earn you RM1,200 in Malaysia. So we have to look at it on the basis of one-to-one. If you earn RM1,200 per month in Malaysia, can you rent a two-room apartment in the city for RM320? Will you be able to spend RM20 (£20) for a cart-full of groceries like in Manchester, or will it be RM400 (£400) like in Malaysia? Can you buy a used car for RM200-RM400 (£200-£400) in Malaysia like you can in Manchester?
Yes, our problem extends to more than just the price of petrol going up 30 sen. The ringgit that you earn does not go very far in Malaysia, even if the petrol price did not increase. The cost of living in Malaysia is very high even though the quality of life is low. That is the crux of the issue. I would rather earn £2,000 in UK than RM2,000 in Malaysia. £2,000 in UK goes very, very far. In Malaysia, RM2,000 can hardly carry you through half the month.
Still want to protest and demonstrate against the 30 sen increase in petrol prices? Don't waste your time. You should instead protest the low wages. The so-called `poverty level' that the government has come out with is utter bullshit. The government is misleading us as to what really represents poverty. If they redraw the poverty line, then most Malaysians can be considered poor. In reality, 'poverty level' is more like RM1,200. Short of that, you just can't manage, especially if you have a wife and kids.Do you want to know something the government has not told us? Bank Negara has come out with its calculation that if you retired at age 55 or 56, you will need a savings of RM2 million-RM3 million to enjoy your retirement comfortably. If not, you will still need to work. This is of course assuming you will live for another 15-20 years before you die and that you will live a modest live, not one of luxury. Yes, that's right, RM2 million-RM3 million or RM120,000 a year if you live to age 73 or so, the average lifespan of a male Malaysian. That comes to about RM10,000 per month. But you can only play with your grandchildren and tend to your garden. If you jet-set or take sea cruises, then you will be broke within three or four years.
Now, how much do we get when we retire? RM300,000? In two or three years you will be broke and will need to go find a job. This is more frightening than the 30 sen increase in petrol prices. And I bet what you are earning today hardly lasts the month -- so for sure you are not saving anything for retirement day. Well, let's hope you get a heart attack and die before age 56. This would save you the agony of facing your old age with no money in your pocket.
