APRIL 16 — The obvious issue plaguing our daily lives the past month needs no introduction.

I’d like to address the transportation and existential elements of the situation here in Malaysia.

A myriad times infinite is the actual number of things to examine related to the 15 per cent of global fuel not passing through the Strait of Hormuz currently which domino effects adversely affect the world, not limited to manufacturing across China or the prospect of the Republicans losing both houses in the November US Elections.

Fascinating as they are, tremendously important as they are over in the Middle East, our fixations are firmly domestic. To aid, some questions, which inadvertently forces more long-term reflections for the Malaysian people.

Do I need that drive?

Millions of government and GLC employees are holding conference calls — while they shoo away young children and other distractions from their makeshift workstation — at home.

Home is where the heart is, also where the office is until they tidy up the landmines and store up the rocket launchers around the Arab peninsula.

Private sector workers follow the beat of their management.

While the bulk of conversations revolve around fuel price, the actual worry in the medium term is fuel supply. It won’t matter how much the price is if there is none to sell.

This is where the government seeks to lead behaviour. Millions of litres of petrol are not utilised by millions of government employees daily if they are at home. Should they order out or can they do more of their bit to conserve by cooking their own meals?

Yesterday was day one of work from home (WFH) and the city traffic was about the same.

This is early days, of the effort to reduce fuel consumption. The current fuel supply uncertainty is not in Malaysia’s hands, how to respond to it, is.

Millions, private or public sector employees, make that decision every day, are they choosing restraint when possible?

It is really about perspectives, which is why it is a moral decision for the individual.

Do you drive back to Ipoh or Johor Bahru this weekend to visit the parents? It may not be an extravagance if care-giving is involved.

There are multitudes of examples and contexts, but the question still remains if a conscience still persists.

In this regard, moral leadership is necessary from the government. It may want to do less telling and find ways to get more Malaysians on board through persuasion.

Unfortunately, almost every government ever in this federation gets afflicted by the “Do as I say, not as I do” syndrome.

Do I take before the others do?

Kiasu never went away.

Fuel shortage engenders the typical response in the masses: fill up before the others do. “The last one at the pump is a sucker!”

Psychologists have libraries filled with reports, publications and Hollywood-ready scripts on how the worst comes out of people when scarcity sets in.

In a perverse way, some may reckon, if oil is finite and the next supply uncertain, better use more of it now. Better do that coastal drive to Butterworth now, and not cry about it later. FOMO, fear of missing out.

Trust in each other is the building block of a country. Regrettably, three generations of politicians thrived on mistrust and made it the building block to their electoral victories.

Yet trust is necessary to curb panic and hoarding. So too profiteering, prices upped at the first opportunity.

I remember in the aftermath of the Japan tsunami in 2011 and the Fukushima nuclear meltdown which dislodged over 150,000 people. Yet, queues for food and supplies were orderly even if long and time-consuming. Looting was absent. A conscientious collective is unnoticed until tested, and reputations last a lifetime.

How would Malaysians score?

Where’s the bus stop again?

The buses and trains should be fuller if more in view of global predicaments choose public transportation.

Perhaps this will be a spectacular time to see public officials themselves using the system, presenting themselves as berjiwa rakyat.

There’s not much to add since the arguments are self-evident, the real resistance wall is indifference.

The trains and buses already run, jumping onto them does not add to the petrol consumption count, if anything it reduces cost per rider, and therefore the efficiency of public transportation.

Whose job to deliver steady supply of cheap petrol?

It’s less about politics and more about self-entitlement. We arrive from the back of a petrol-state past, with no state effort to correct our misguided notion of deserving constantly replenished cheap petrol.

Government facilitates, and in our present situation, Malaysia does not dictate to the world.

Even if there is a government change there is no evidence that the reactions will be different or that they have a better plan to deal with oil shortages. Some might whisper, looking at the alternatives available, they may worsen things.

Malaysians may need to readjust their expectations of the government, and demand more from themselves.

The sky’s not falling but we can be better

It’s not dire straits presently. There is every chance a solution soon softens the impact on Malaysia to a period of discomfort only.

Yet, every episode allows us as a country to be introspective.

Not touched here is food security vulnerabilities. Again, a myriad times infinite, the number of issues.

What Malaysians should ask — more of themselves even if they can demand from the government — is whether attitudes must shift from the lessons of the current crisis.

Would we all drive less because it is bad to consume so much fuel?

Would we ask a whole bunch of questions to ourselves all of the time to own more of our problems?

* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.