China’s Competition for Living Space

From what used to be only 20%, over 60% of China’s population live in modern megacities (This used to be only 20% before). The growth in number persists. Sadly, the majority of these migrants never reach the glamorous streets with skyscrapers, but end up in dark homes in the narrow, loud and dirty streets, hidden behind all the shiny structures of the city. 

Source: https://www.china-briefing.com

China’s Competition for Living Space is a documentary that sheds light upon what really lies within China’s metropolises; the struggles and conflicts between the people and the law, and the appalling and conditional livelihoods the working class lead. This 42 minutes long documentary was created and released on May 30th, 2021, by Deutsche Welle (DW), a German International Broadcasting service. DW is a German-based media organization. 

Intended towards an audience of any kind, especially those interested in housing and urban development, this documentary reveals the complications of national laws and their effects on its domain and people, even though made in the hope of the country’s advancement.

This documentary takes us to several homes of migrant workers in Guangzhou and Shenzhen, giving us a visual understanding of what an ‘urban village’ in China really is. The most populated country in the world does not have a dense population, but the urban villages in its cities do at an alarming amount. 

The film introduces Erk Schaffarczyk, a German architect, and author David Bandurski who have both lived and worked in China for over a decade. The two individually explain the forces that drive people towards the urban lands even though there are no ideal homes available for them, in spite of being the major contributors as a working and middle class for the city’s thriving economy.

Professor of Architecture Juan Du at Hong Kong University is also introduced in this documentary to unfold the law systems of the People’s Republic. Being a specialist in large metropolitan areas and urban villages, she elucidates how the people have no legal rights of ownership on their rural lands as well as no official rights to settle in a city. Step by step, she explains how these lands, which used to be farmlands, end up in the hands of authorities and contractors, even if it takes brutal force. Juan Du, Erk Schaffarczyk and David Bandurski provide the viewers with a vivid understanding of what China’s urban real estate has come to and what happens to those who oppose the authorities.

To comprehend what happens when one takes a stand, the documentary takes us to Li Qizhong’s home in Guangzhou. He is one of the very few who dared to defend his home and fight back against the city administrator and an obstinate contractor. DW visited Li Qizhong in 2012 when he was one of the last residents who remained in his building. The film documented how Li fortified his home, and his perseverance to protect his family and land, despite threats and violent approaches. Li’s example in the film provides the viewers with an understanding that when it comes to China’s land and its potential, whether you’re protecting it or fighting to own it, people have resorted to extreme and savage tactics.

China’s Competition for Living Space is an eye-opener to how city development can affect people’s lives and mindsets.  This film has the capability to ignite curiosity in viewers’ minds about how urban development, planning, and housing works not only in China but in other countries as well, what hidden or unpleasant truths may lie within, and what can be done to alleviate such situations. 

It is useful reminder of us in Malaysia of the plight of the poor. And how successive governments promise but never deliver on basic human need of a home. Have a review of the DW documentary in the reference below.

Reference

Youtube for architects: China’s competition for living space – DW Documentary, Rethinking the Future (https://www.re-thinkingthefuture.com)

Malaysia: Reset, Restore or Rebuild?

The “Better Malaysia Assembly” of Nazir Razak has enlisted 54 so-called eminent persons for resetting Malaysia. He has made a plea to the Conference of Rulers and the YDPA on his proposal for a reset. The King and the Conference of Rulers are apolitical – so how does this work?

He wants to propose key reforms for the reset and needs up to 24 months to do so. Isn’t this the purview of Parliament and the Government in power to reset, restore or rebuild? Biden has a “Build Back Better” slogan, a copy of a U.N. document in 2015. Are we doing the same?

Based on IMF GDP data for 2020, Malaysia’s economy is now ranked 6th in ASEAN. About 10 years ago, Malaysia was the 3rd largest economy in ASEAN. Philippines and Singapore overtook Malaysia in 2015 when Najib Razak was the Prime Minister and Finance Minister.

Now, Malaysia’s economy is smaller than that of Vietnam. Shown below is the 2020 IMF GDP data:

Country	US$’b
1. Indonesia	1,059.54
2. Thailand	510.89
3. Philippines	362.24
4. Vietnam	340.82
5. Singapore	339.98
6. Malaysia	338.28
7. Myanmar	81.26
8. Cambodia	25.95
9. Laos	19.08
10. Brunei	12.02

There are several reasons for this decline and many have pointed it out. It doesn’t take 24 months to establish the reasons and what reforms are needed:

Issue	Reform
1. Islamisation and role of Jakim	·         Move back to a secular state approach, similar as in Indonesia
2. Ketuanan Melayu	·         Keluarga Malaysia and affirmative action on needs based approach is superior
3. Dominance of Civil Service by majority race (88% Bumiputera)	·         Restructure to reflect population distribution by race and gender
4. NEP target of 30% equity interest  (Government believes it is only 17.2%)	·         Have an independent party verify equity control by Bumiputera interests ·         Remove the requirement over a set period with no extension
5. Education – national schools are more “Islamic”	·         Reset schools on merit based and curriculum that promotes learning not rote learning ·         Support learning of English and a vernacular language. This is beyond Malay as medium of instruction
6. Employment – low skill and low cost labour force	·         Make concrete steps to a technology-based economy ·         Innovation, incubators and clusters are encouraged ·         Wage reform to a higher cost economy ·         Automate dirty, dangerous and difficult jobs
7. Entrepreneurship – “forced” acquisitions of non-Malay enterprises	·         Promote entrepreneurship with tax incentives for Nons to partner Bumiputeras ·         Create/promote companies reflecting merit and diversity
8. Corrupt practices – political donations, contracts, GLC appointments	·         Revamp MACC and others and have people with integrity ·         Create a Truth Commission as a watchdog ·         Transparency and accountability to Election Commission
9. Legislative review and reforms             -PM’s power             -State and Federal             -MA63	·         People’s Ombudsman for feedback and resolution ·         Fulfill MA63

The above is not an exhaustive list.  And it doesn’t take 24 months to detail issues and solutions. Why? Because most Malaysians know the “brakes” and what will accelerate growth. But we sure have to reset, restore, rebuild the institutions of government, policies that help community and work for a better Malaysia without the lenses of race and religion (Please refer to Sarawak or Sabah).

Reference:

Nazir and 54 others seek royal backing for “national reset”, Malaysiakini, Nov 26, 2021

Malaysia needs a restoration, not a reset, Terence Netto, FreeMalaysiaToday, Nov 28, 2021

Five Problems with Electric Cars Charging

Finance minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz said that the Government sees the potential of EVs to help reduce air pollution. To support the development of the local EV industry, the Government is proposing that EVs be completely exempt from import duty, excise duty and sales tax.

EVs will also benefit from a road tax exemption of up to 100% under the proposal, while an income tax relief of up to RM2,500 will be provided on the cost of purchasing and installing, renting or taking up hire purchase facilities, as well as subscription payments of EV charging facilities.

The proposal also involves 100% duty exemption for CBU electric cars up to 31st December 2023, and 100% duty exemption for CKD electric cars up to 31st December 2025. Clearly the plan is to kickstart the industry with CBU cars and hopefully local assembly activities can begin from 2024 onwards.

Source: https://www.motorist.sg /Yahoo News Singapore

Electricity has a major advantage over fossil fuel: it’s everywhere already. Just about everywhere you go, you could plug in and top up your car when it needs it. Your car will charge while you’re away doing what you need to do, whether it’s shopping, visiting friends or just relaxing at home.

Having said that, there are 5 problems for using electric cars:

1. Accessing Public Chargers

There are currently more than 30 charging networks across the UK. Unlike petrol stations, in the vast majority of cases you can’t just park up and charge. Long journeys in an electric car currently require an element of planning, followed up with a downloading of apps and setting up of accounts, either in advance or when you reach the charger. In the U.K., only a minority of charging points allow you to pay directly by credit or debit card without going through an app or website. According to figures from Zap Map, just 8% of chargers in the UK are both rapid (quick to charge) and accept contactless payments.

Some chargers that can accept contactless payment will charge you more for using your bank card as opposed to using the network’s dedicated app or web interface. In effect, it’s punishing you for paying by card. All the while, the network-specific apps that many people will be reliant on are some of the most poorly rated apps on the Google Play store.

Universal access is challenging, but it is essential. We need one app, one RFID card and one account that allows you to access all networks wherever you. This isn’t to stop networks having their own apps, cards and membership schemes, it’s to make sure there’s a universal default. Ideally, that RFID card (or similar) could top up an account with actual cash via, say, the Post Office, in the same way some people pay utility bills or top up electricity meters.

2. Rapid-charging Plugs

Most electric cars can receive rapid charging via DC and this is the fastest way to top up your car’s battery. The issue is there are two entirely different DC plugs – CCS or Chademo – both of which require their own socket. 

Most cars that can receive a rapid charge today with CCS socket. The outliers being both generations of the Nissan Leaf and the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, which have a Chademo socket. 

The same problem existed with multiple AC sockets until the EU decreed in 2014 that all new plug-in cars should have a ‘Type 2’ (or Mennekes) AC socket.

Nissan’s new Ariya SUV will have a CCS connector, which many have taken as a harbinger of the imminent demise of Chademo. 

3. Charging by Time

Some charge points and networks charge per minute, rather than by kWh (the electric car equivalent of ringgit per litre). This makes it difficult for you to compare prices.

Charging by time only makes things complicated. Charging by kWh makes rates easier to understand and possible to compare.

4. Brand-specific Networks

Tesla is a trailblazer and a market challenger. The Tesla Model S saloon and its mind-blowing (for the time) range proved that electric cars weren’t just meant to be secondary vehicles. And a crucial way Tesla made its cars even more convenient was to establish its own supercharger network and destination charger network. 

Unique to Tesla, the supercharger network uses a Type 2 plug that’s capable of delivering rapid DC – it’s the only Type 2 plug to do so. Each supercharger unit also has a CCS charger, which means other electric cars could use it.

Tesla’s superchargers aren’t open to other brands of car. Tesla superchargers have power levels from 120kW to 250kW, and charge their owners just 26p per kWh. So one of the fastest, most prolific and affordable set of ultra-rapid chargers is locked off to one brand.

Destination chargers can be unique to Tesla, or open to all with a Type 2 plug. Tesla says it advises hosts that ‘wherever two chargers are installed, we encourage one to be universal and one to be Tesla only’. All Tesla destination chargers could be open to all cars.

Having charging points that most electric car drivers can’t use is almost as bad as not having them at all. Imagine if Ford had its own branded pumps at petrol stations. Only Ford cars could use it, but Ford cars could also use all other pumps on the forecourt. How happy would you be as a non-Ford owner? 

As we rapidly approach the point of mass adoption of electric cars, single-brand networks belong in the past. We need more charging points, but there’s currently nothing to stop more single-brand networks such as Tesla’s from popping into existence.

5. Charging Speeds

All slow and fast chargers (so all 3 to 22kW chargers) provide AC current, which your electric car’s onboard charger converts to DC so it can then be channelled into your battery. But just because a 22kW charger exists, this doesn’t mean your car can actually receive a 22kW charge. The Renault Zoe is the one of the only cars of that can make full use of a 22kW charger. Most cars on the market are limited to a maximum AC charge rate of 7.2-11kW – although you can still connect to a 22kW charger, as the car will manage the rate of charge and take what it can. Any car capable of rapid charging also has an entirely separate maximum DC charge rate. The problem is that drivers could choose a charger with a higher rate of power when it’s of no use, potentially taking it away from another driver who could make better use of it. Faster charges are also more expensive.

The solution? There’s something simple that car manufacturers can do to make life easier: just as some cars have ‘diesel’ or ‘petrol’ labels on their fuel caps, a car’s maximum AC and DC rates could quite simply be printed next to its charging sockets. 

It will encourage drivers to pick an appropriate charger, freeing faster ones up for those who can take advantage of them, and may save them money. But until initial problems of infrastructure, network, rapid charging plugs and charging speeds are resolved, the EV phenomenon will not progress very much even with incentives of tax and subsidies. The Government must get its priorities right and make the roll-out on infrastructure with TNB or Petronas and then move forward with sales and manufacturing of EVs. We can’t put the “cart before the horse” so to speak but we are damn good at it!

Reference:

Five problems with electric cars charging and how to fix them, Adrian Porter (https://www.which.co.uk)

Is Malaysia’s Debt Level to Hit 70% of GDP?

 A scary thought is how many generations of Malaysians will it take to pay off the debts amassed by the country. 

With government debt having hit 64.3% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2Q 2021 – after rapidly escalating from 52.5% of GDP in 4Q 2019 – Fitch Solutions Country Risk & Industry Research views that the 70% threshold is not far off. The debt limit was raised to 65% and will remain there provisionally until the end-2022, according to Fitch Solutions.

Given a large deficit of 6% of GDP (or above) in 2022, the third such deficit in a row after 2020 (6.2%) and 2021 (6.8%), government debt is likely to continue climbing at a fast pace over the course of 2022, according to the research house.

Fitch Solutions believes that there will likely be another hike to the debt limit before the next legislative elections in July 2023 to 70% of GDP. In Fitch Solutions’ view, the large government debt load presents two possible scenarios for the Malaysian economy over the medium-to-long term. 

The first is if the Government embarks on fiscal consolidation, gradually improving the fiscal balance and even paying down debt. This would mean reduced spending for several years depending on how much rationalisation the government is prepared to undertake and may pose a direct headwind to growth.

The other scenario is if the Government continues to run consistent deficits after the pandemic is over. If these are kept to around 3% of GDP, then the public debt load can be kept somewhat steady. With reduced long-term growth prospects (average around 3.7% between 2023 and 2030) in Malaysia, any sustained fiscal deficits significantly above 3% of GDP would lead to a rise in the government debt load.

The Modern Monetary Theory (“MMT”) on the contrary suggests:

• large government debt is not a precursor to collapse;

• countries like U.S. can sustain higher deficits;

• a small deficit or surplus is more harmful

They (MMT theorists) argue that comparing a government’s budget to that of an average household is a mistake. While inflation is possible, it is unlikely and can be addressed by policy decisions and through surplus resources (availability of real resources). MMT was developed by Mosler and Stephanie Kelton is now the high priest (of MMT).

Against the above is the thesis by Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth S. Rogoff (Harvard) who suggest that average growth rate will be 2% lower when the 60% debt threshold (debt to GDP) is breached and negative when the 90% debt threshold is surpassed. The underlying debt (private and public) is external in their thesis. And  if you look at Japan it has a debt to GDP of over 250%, largely domestic. Its external debt is 93% of GDP resulting in very tepid growth. 

Nevertheless, prudence will suggest our debt level needs to be addressed by better “checks and balances” on budget allocations; tax reforms; and, a widening of the tax base. Alarm bells on this “Titanic” is slow to sound! 

References:

Fitch Solutions: Malaysia’s debt level on course to hit 70% of GDP, Cheah Chor Sooi, Focus Malaysia (https://focusmalaysia.my)

Modern Monetary Theory (MMT), Deborah D’Souza, Feb 3, 2021

Growth in a time of debt (Digest Summary), Carmen M Reinhart/Kenneth S. Rogoff, American Economic Review

Highly Confident CEOs Perform Better During Crisis?

Over-confidence or the tendency to under-estimate risk and over-estimate returns is often cited as a leading factor behind some of the biggest corporate failures in history. – The Enron scandal at the turn of the millennium to the spectacular collapses of investment banks Bear Sterns and Lehman Brothers during the Global Financial Crisis (2007-2008) are examples.

With the world now in the grip of a new crisis brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, a recent study is challenging the stereotypical discourse on over-confident business leaders. This study suggests that a touch of conceit in CEOs may help to lead their companies through the storm.

Source: https://business-review.eu

An area that over-confident CEOs excelled at is withholding bad news and accentuating good news, according to a study entitled CEO Overconfidence and the COVID-19 Pandemic by the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) Business School.

Researchers in the study have theorised that over-confident CEOs could be beneficial to their firms during unprecedented times of crisis with the COVID-19 pandemic providing a perfect backdrop for them to test their theories. Companies with exceptionally confident CEOs performed better in the stock market during the COVID-19 pandemic.

So how did self-assured CEOs successfully manage investor perception during the crisis? The researchers explain that while the market sentiment was generally pessimistic for all firms, super confident CEOs tended to be more effective in managing public perception which then influenced investors’ perception of their firms.

As a result, investors maintained a positive attitude towards stocks of companies helmed by those CEOs. This ability to keep a positive image of the company was extremely important for companies that faced high uncertainty and lack of resources during the pandemic.

Another area that overconfident CEOs excelled at is withholding bad news and accentuating good news, according to the CUHK study. While it is an activity that may be deemed questionable by some, it turns out to be quite valuable during a crisis. According to the study results, overconfident CEOs indeed withheld more bad news which resulted in less negative stock price reactions during the pandemic.

However, despite the marginal edge gained by companies who are helmed by over-confident CEOs during the pandemic, the researchers found that even a highly over-confident CEO would not be able to save companies with inherently higher risk or weaker foundations from going under.

Do Malaysian PLCs have CEOs who are super confident of their businesses? Or, are they having vested interest because they too are part shareholders? Or maybe they are suffering from the Krueger-Dunning Effect?

Reference:

Stocks with highly confident CEOs tend to perform better during crisis, Cheah Chor Sooi, Focus Malaysia

Boeing’s Continued Woes

While inspecting and repairing undelivered 787 Dreamliners for the flaws at fuselage joints that emerged last year, Boeing has discovered a new manufacturing quality problem with a key structural part in the nose of the aircraft. In yet another serious setback as Boeing struggles to recover from the pandemic's impact on production, its engineers have now found gaps around the forward pressure bulkhead.

This is a hefty, dome-shaped structural barrier forward of the pilot instrument panel that's crucial to maintaining air pressure within the cockpit and passenger cabin. The additional inspections and repairs now required will prolong the current 787 delivery halt and extend the duration of the large inventory build-up. In addition, it has forced Boeing to cut the already slow production rate further.

Boeing insists the gaps around the bulkhead are tiny -- measured in thousandths of an inch -- and the Federal Aviation Administration concurs with company engineers that it is "not a safety-of-flight issue."

However, the gaps are beyond the tolerances demanded in the design specification for the 787, and so the backlog of about 100 completed planes that are parked and undelivered must be inspected for the flaw and repaired if need be. Boeing and the FAA are still assessing whether similar inspections will be needed for the in-service fleet currently flying passengers around the globe.

The discovery has forced Boeing to take teams of mechanics off 787 production to add resources for the inspections and repairs on undelivered jets. Thwarting its efforts to generate cash flow with the 787, Boeing said it now cannot meet its target of delivering more than half of those parked planes in 2021.

A spokesperson said the decision to cut the production rate is only partly because of diversion of resources to deal with the new manufacturing problem. Another factor is the lack of interest from long-haul airlines in taking 787 deliveries because of the continued steep drop-off in international air travel.

This new manufacturing flaw complicates an already difficult recovery for the 787 program. From last fall, 787 deliveries were stopped until March, when Boeing developed its inspection and repair protocol and the FAA gave its initial approval to resume deliveries. But when the FAA demanded more data on Boeing's proposal to conduct further inspections by sampling, deliveries stopped again in May.

During that brief respite between March and May, and with the single plane Turkish took in June, Boeing has delivered just 14 Dreamliners in the nine months since October. Now the paralysis in deliveries is set to be prolonged further.

The only good news for Boeing recently has been that sales of the 737 Max have picked up. Data released recently shows Boeing won 219 orders in June: the 200 Maxes booked by United, plus 18 wide-body 767 freighters and one large 777 freighter, all for FedEx. However, 71 Maxes were cancelled as well as two 737 military derivative planes, so the net orders for June came to 146.

In addition, Boeing removed another 49 Maxes and seven 787s from its firm order backlog, which means those orders are now considered too dubious to count as firm because of customer financing or contract issues. Subtracting those, June produced a net increase in firm orders of 90 airplanes.

Free of Boeing's manufacturing setbacks, rival plane manufacturer Airbus is pumping out airplanes much faster. In the first half of 2021, the European aerospace giant delivered almost twice as many airplanes as Boeing. In June, Airbus delivered 77 aircraft to customers, raising the total deliveries so far this year to 297.

Profit and market share have driven sales of Boeing and Airbus. The safety issue was overlooked until two Maxes literally fell out of the sky. Boeing agreed to pay a A$3.2 billion fine over fraud charges related to two devastating jumbo jet crashes. More than half the payment will go to compensate airlines which have bought the 737 MAX. Another A$643 million (US$500 million) will go to the heirs, relatives and legal beneficiaries of the 346 passengers who died in the Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crashes.

Boeing needs to rectify its processes, objectives and focus on reliability. That is more important than revenues and profits in the longer term.

Source: https://ycnews.com

 

Source: https://ycnews.com

References:

Boeing checks find new 787 flaw, Tribute News Service, July 14, 2021

(https://www.arkansasonline.com)

Boeing hit with $3.2 billion fine after deceiving authorities about fatal flaw, 

(https://www.9news.com.au)

Bahasa Malaysia or Consumer Prices?

The Prime Minister (PM) is focused on Bahasa Malaysia (“BM”). The use of it at every opportunity from august halls in the government or private sector to the wet markets. Zaid Ibrahim rebuked (FMT, 30 Nov) the PM. He suggested the PM focus on real issues and not something that has been trumpeted for 64 years. Yes, some Bangladeshis speak better BM than students from vernacular schools. Why? Their first or second wives are local Malay women.

Unless your environment is largely Malay, this language stuff will go on for another 64 years! I served in Bank Bumiputera for 20 years. My BM improved by leaps and bounds! Perhaps more leaps than bounds! The Malay colleagues of mine will speak to me in English but I will reply in BM. Flabbergasted but happy that I am fairly “fasih dalam BM”.

The real issue now is rising prices! Inflation officially is only about 3% according to Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM). But is that real? It is from the Government’s point of view. But that’s because of the components and weightage in the index. From sugar to meat, from post office to national carmaker (Proton), from power (Malakoff) to gas (Gas Malaysia) or engineering(MMC), everything is monopolized by one man, Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary. Before “Sugar King” Robert Kuok was forced to sell his sugar business in 2009, the price of sugar was kept low and stable. When Syed Mokhtar Albukhary took over the sugar business, prices rose consistently.

Naturally, when wholesale sugar price increases, the food prices such as canned drinks, bread, biscuits and soya sauce also increase accordingly. When the world price for sugar was only RM1.40 per kilogram, the retail price in Malaysia was set at RM2.90 per kg. And that’s monopoly power.

Not only Albukhary controls the sugar business, he also monopolizes the rice in the country. His company Tradewinds acquired Padiberas Nasional Bhd (Bernas), the country’s sole rice importer. Gross profit per month is reportedly RM8.7 million, which translates into RM104.4 million annually just for arranging the import of rice.

On November 25, local bread producer Gardenia Bakeries announced that it will raise prices for most of its products, ranging from 10 sen to 45 sen – effective December 1. Of course, Gardenia is owned by none other than Albukhary. A loaf of Gardenia Original Classic 400g white bread will cost RM2.80 compared to the old price of RM2.50. The Gardenia Original

Classic Jumbo 600g will cost RM4 instead of RM3.55, while a 400g loaf of Gardenia Bran & WheatGerm which is currently priced at RM2.50 will be increased to RM2.90. The local favourites such as Twiggies will jump from RM1.49 to RM1.80.

As usual, Gardenia claims that the price increase is due to the hike in the cost of raw materials (flour, sugar, milk, whole wheat, cocoa powder and packaging) and freight charges. Interestingly, Massimo bread owned by billionaire Robert Kuok appears to be immune to cost of raw materials as it has not announced any price hike. 

This is not the first time Gardenia increased its prices. About a year ago (November 2020), it also announced new prices for several of its flavoured breads. The price had been raised between 5 and 20 sen effective December 2020. In Nov 2018, Gardenia also raised the prices of several of its best-known products, even though it had increased the prices of 18 of its products a year earlier in 2017.

Although chicken prices have spiked to RM10.70 from RM8 per kg within a week, the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Alexander Nanta Linggi said his ministry had no plans to enforce price control for the item. He claimed no cartel activities have been detected. Finance minister Tengku Zafrul said his Finance Ministry will be studying the method to stabilise the rising price of chicken.

That was in September 2021. Two months later (November), hypermarket boss Ameer Ali Mydin of the Mydin chain raised the alarm. Chicken prices have remained stubbornly high. Worse, the shortage saw only 60% of its usual supply being met. Again, labour shortage was blamed, as well as heavy rain and escalating cost of imported chicken feed.

As early as April this year, chicken was already sold at RM8.80 per kilogram at the Selayang wet market. In fact, the price of chicken had increased 6 times in the same month. It means while the government – both Muhyiddin Yassin and Ismail Sabri administrations – knew about the problem since early this year, the government has done little to solve the issues.

The price of vegetables, including tomatoes, Japanese cucumbers, chillies, cabbages, beans, sweet peppers and all types of salad leaves produced in Cameron Highlands have risen between 30% to 40% as early as June this year.

Yet, the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs blames the reopening of all trade sectors since October as the culprit. Is the government trying to say that the people did not eat anything during the Covid lockdown?

The former PM Najib hasn’t pulled his previous stunt this time. He advised people in 2014 to shop wisely instead of complaining about price hikes. And he showed off a chicken he bought for just RM1. In defending his administration, Najib had also condemned people for ignoring vegetables that have become cheaper, such as “kangkung” (water spinach).

In truth, everything is being controlled in Malaysia through AP (approved permit), import and export permits, licenses, monopoly and cartels. The system has been designed in such a way to enrich the elites. We need a radical change in Government mindset to listen to the people rather than deflect issues with language, race or religion.

References:

Food prices skyrocket – The return of monopoly & cartel run by rich UMNO Malay Elites to profit from the people, 28 Nov 2021, http://www.financetwitter.com

A lecture on language isn’t what Malaysia needs, PM told, Robin Augustin, FreeMalaysiaToday, November 30, 2021