|
By Little Bird About three weeks ago, the Government secretly set up an Inter-Ministerial Action Council. This is just a long winded name for 'Media Manipulation'. This inter ministerial council represents three Ministries i.e., the Ministry of Domestic Trade & Consumer Affairs, the Ministry of Information and the Ministry of Higher Education.
The purpose of this Action Council is to neutralise nagging election issues that are the cause of peoples' concern namely the rising prices and consumer issues. The immediate outcome of the Council's meddling has been the rash for interviews with pro-government professionals and agencies on the government-owned RTM stations. The spate of cost of living comparisons with other countries like Thailand, Indonesia and Japan and the list of ten items banned from being taken out of the country are all the handiwork of this Inter-Ministerial Action Council. However, these 'feel good' TV interviews are not breaking any ice in the kampong. Calls by Shapie Afdal, the Minister of Domestic Trade, that consumers shop wisely and make price comparisons between the many hypermarkets like Giant and Tesco does not make sense for the mak cik in Hutan Melintang or Sanglang where there are no supermarkets. In the rural areas, going to market means buying from the motorbike vendors who charge ten cents extra for an egg and fifty cents extra for a kilogram of ikan kembong. They do not have opportunity to make price comparisons with supermarkets. Kampong people were also badly hit by the recent complete disappearance of cooking oil from the shelves of the local kedai runcit kampong (Kampong Provision shop). They cannot go to supermarkets like the Tesco, Giant, or Mydin, because such supermarkets are in large towns perhaps about 30 to 100 kms away. Then the Action Council faces a major hurdle in explaining the oil subsidies. There is a discrepancy in the total amount of money paid out as oil subsidies. The Prime Minister got the ball rolling when he said somewhere that oil subsidies cost the Government RM40 billion. No one knows how he arrived at this figure. The Deputy Prime Minister too did not help with a better statement to clarify the RM40 billion subsidy but rather preferred to state that the oil subsidies cost RM35 billion. The truth of the matter is that the PM made another serious mistake which is now being repeated endlessly. The RM40 billion appears closer to the government's total expenditure on all subsidies including free medical treatment, free text books, Orang Asli budgets, fertiliser subsidies, FELCRA replanting subsidies etc. According to the Action Council, the actual oil subsidy is only in the region of RM17 Billion. But the government cannot admit this mistake because Anwar Ibrahim has already gone to town with his contention that there is no need for a drastic oil price increase. Although Dato Anwar's assertions were without much logistical support, it will still cause the Government a serious embarrassment if the Government were to admit now, that the actual oil subsidy is only RM17 billion and not RM40 Billion as quoted by the PM or even RM 35 Billion as quoted by the Deputy PM. To divert the attention away from this difficult situation, the Inter Ministry Action Council will be conducting more fake TV interviews with its 'planted' experts. Expect to hear more 'mak cik' appearing on TV tell us that life is good for them especially because of the Government’s control on prices of essential commodities. There will also be more cost of living comparisons with countries like Norway, Germany and India.
 |
F&N condense milk has gone up RM0.40
Daisy low fat milk has gone up between RM1.40 to RM2.00 over the last 3 months depending on which supermarket.
Vitalite spread has gone up from RM7.90 to RM11.90 in the last 3 months. This is almost 50% increase and is rediculous.
Ikan Tenggiri is being sold at RM29 a kilo from RM16 a kilo. Only in giant Batu caves it is being sold at RM16.90 a kilo. I dont know about the price in other giant supermarkets.
Soft drinks have gone up from RM1.00 to RM1.20 to RM1.50 a can in the last 3 months.
Despite the US rate going down and trade is done in US, even imported stuff have gone up like there is no tomorrow.
What is the government doing about this. Why is there no checks being done on supermarkets to ensure that prices are not being increased indiscrimately. At the rate prices of foodstuff are being increased, soon people will have to only eat ikan bilis sambal everyday or dhall curry every day.