As UMNO and MCA worked up a sweat in their newest bout of shadow-boxing, the price of fish in Klang Valley is shooting up drastically and consumers left fuming.
The sky-rocketing price is caused by the ongoing strike by 500 deep-sea fishermen who had started the strike since last week. The strike by the fishermen was because they wanted to voice their dismay over the subsidy-cut for the diesel used by them with effect 1st June 2011.
The majority of the deep-sea fishermen, mostly in Perak have protested against this move as the current diesel price is RM1.80 compared to RM1.25 prior to 1st June.
The new diesel price only affects those who are holders of the Class C2 license for deep-sea trawler fishing which are allowed to fish in areas 30 nautical miles from the shore. It does not affect those who hold the Class A, B and C license who are allowed to fish within 20 nautical miles from the shore and are categorised as small-time fishermen or beach-boat operators.
The subsidy-cut will drastically slash the fishermen's income with some of them saying that with the current diesel price, they will be making terrible losses and therefore it is not profitable to go out to sea anymore. These deep-sea trawler fishermen used between 20,000 to 30,000 litres of diesel per month.
This issue received wide coverage in the Chinese press as many of the fishermen were predominantly Chinese and they have approached the MCA for help in this matter.
Confusion reigns, who's in charge
MCA's Chua Tee Yong, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Agro-based Industries has urged the fishermen to stop protesting saying that he will try to bring up the matter to the Minister of Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism, Ismail Sabri Yaakob. However, Chua insisted that the new price offered was still a subsidised price.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Agriculture and Agro-based Industries, UMNO MP of Tanjung Karang, Noh Omar has been arrogant in this issue; making a loud statement in Parliament that the government is adamant about the new diesel price and that there will be no negotiations. Prior to this, he had also warned other fishermen (those not involved in deep-sea fishing) not to participate in the protests in solidarity with their fellow-fishermen.
Contradicting Chua's statement that the price of RM1.80 is still a subsidised price, Noh Omar said that although the government had abolished the subsidy, the trawler fishermen still enjoyed other perks such as an increased fish landing incentive for deep-sea fishing from 10 sen to 20 sen per kilo while the rate for coastal fishermen remained at 10 sen per kilo. Noh Omar added that this is to encourage the deep-sea fishermen to bring back their catch.
Other benefits for the deep-sea fishermen included the 34 fish landing complexes built at the cost of RM3.4 billion compared to the ones built for coastal fishermen and diesel quota between 24,000 to 28,000 litres per month compared to coastal fishermen who receive only 2,000 to 15,000 litres a month.
Minister of Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism, Ismail Sabri Yaakob also dug in and agreed with Noh Omar that the government will not back down on this.
While Chua said he will take up the matter with Ismail Sabri Yaakob the Minister of Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism, Ismail Sabri said that fishery was under the Ministry of Agriculture and Agro-based Industries which means that it is Noh Omar who is in charge.
There seems to be some confusion here on who is actually in charge. In the meantime, the trawler fishermen have voiced out their intention to meet Noh Omar to thrash out the matter with him.
Palatan slams government's attitude
PAS Perak Information Chief Khalil Idham Lim expressed his disappointment at the attitude of the BN Government.
According to Khalil, who is also the Titi Serong State Assemblyman, the government must find an amicable solution to this matter via discussion and negotiation by consulting the fisherme.
"Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak's slogan of People First means that the government must give priority to solving the problems of the rakyat (or populace). Therefore, the needs of the fishermen who are facing problems of rising cost must be looked into as they have no one to turn to," Khalil told Malaysia Chronicle.
The fishermen are an important group of people as far as the well-being of the nation is concerned because they form part of the food-supply chain and thus their grouses should be looked into with immediate effect.
Khalil opined that if it was only a small matter, the fishermen would not be holding protests because with each fishing day lost means they don't have a catch and they are incurring huge losses by the day.
His Pakatan colleagues concurred.
"It looks like BN is too busy shooting at each other while the fisher-folk suffer. It is easy to bully the small guy but leave the big ones untouched. It is very strange when you have a government that only dares to bully the small guy but works hand in glove with the big fish," Perak DAP chairman Ngeh Koo Ham told Malaysia Chronicle.
BN busy with their own games
A local English daily on Thursday reported that due to the strike, Noh Omar had threatened to import fish but MCA President Chua Soi Lek said that there was no need to pressure the fishermen.
Imported fish will definitely be more costly and the costs get passed down to the consumers.
If the government dismisses the fishermen's woes as inconsequential, it will seem to be giving an impression that it does not care about the rakyat's welfare.
Perhaps it is time for an end to the theatrics. Fishermen have never been an especially wealthy. They don't UMNO and MCA to thump their chests at each other, while and their families suffer.
Critics have slammed Noh's for behaving like a "goon", rather than adopting a statesman-like attitude. As for the Chuas, few have much belief that father or son will stand up for the rights of the fishermen if pressed by UMNO.
A roundtable discussion to come up with a win-win solution is a good idea but only if Noh changes his belligerent attitude and the Chua their "lip-service only" behavior. Otherwise, not only will the fishermen suffer but so will consumers be burdened with the increased price of fish.
- Malaysia Chronicle
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