Nancy’s bargains are actually expensive

The U-turn in Umno Baru’s attitude to the Chinese is fascinating.

COMMENT

One can tell that there is a by-election in the air by the manner in which ministers cultivate the press and photographers to announce that they have overturned unpopular measures.

The resignation of Kajang assemblyman Lee Chin Cheh on Jan 27 may have surprised many people but the unprecedented flurry of activity by Umno Baru and their allies was more odious.

Days after this resignation, and on the eve of Chinese New year, Deputy Finance Minister Ahmad Maslan turned on the Malays and started praising the Chinese.

This U-turn is as shocking as the announcement last year – “Apa lagi Cina mau?” – when the Chinese community was blamed for BN’s poor show at GE-13, in what was dubbed the “Chinese tsunami”.

When Maslan kick-started the Kajang “clash of the year”, he presumably had the Chinese electorate of Kajang in mind.

He publicly slagged-off the Malays at a function and said, “Don’t be angry at the Chinese…” and “Don’t blame them (the Chinese)…”

Maslan is aware of the Chinese work ethic which is responsible for their economic success. Like an exasperated parent who is frustrated with his child Maslan then ticked-off the Malays and said: “Who told you not to do business?”

The U-turn in Umno Baru’s attitude to the Chinese is fascinating.

Last week, it was the turn of Deputy Prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin to appease the public. After a cabinet meeting to discuss the rakyat’s anger over subsidy cuts and price hikes for petrol, energy, assessment rates and sugar, there must have been a unanimous decision to kill two birds with one stone.

Putrajaya aimed to fish for votes and calm an angry rakyat with one tactic.

Muhyiddin then announced that the government would defer the increase in toll charges for 2014. The public was pleased, albeit temporarily.

They discovered that a New Year angpow of RM400 million in compensation would benefit mostly Gamuda and IJM Corp. Many people said, “no money for the rakyat, but plenty for the cronies.”

The cabinet tried again to win over the rakyat and Muhyiddin announced another U-turn. He said he would review the school-based assessment (PBS) application system. Teachers want it scrapped and plan to demonstrate on Feb 22 in Putrajaya.

The protest will overshadow the BRIM 3.0 handout which is scheduled for the same day. One wonders if the government will stop the teachers’ march. Umno Baru is fighting for political survival and do not want anyone tarnishing their image.

If we had a choice
Another minister then waded into the Kajang battleground.

Nancy Shukri, the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, told reporters in KL that consumers who were struggling with the increased cost of living must learn to shop around and look for outlets which had not raised their prices.

She said, “The price rise is subjective in certain areas. Recently when I had tea in Kuching there were six of us and it was only RM12. Is that expensive?

“Same with vegetables. I go around although I don’t have TV people following me. Of course you have to know where to buy chilli (for example) – where some sell for RM1, others RM2.”

Nancy did not tell us where we could by cheap kangkung.

Then in a slick manouevre to give free publicity to two companies she said, “… in Petronas stations the prices never go up. In Mydin, the prices don’t go up. We receive these reports weekly.” (sic.)

Nancy is the minister who last November said that she defended pro-bumiputera policies because without them social problems would be created when bumis who are lagging behind resort to theft when they have no money.

Ministers who are arrogant, who are out-of-touch with the electorate, who think nothing of insulting Malaysians and who excel at patronising the rakyat, do not deserve our respect.

Nancy is right to say we should choose where to shop but it is more easily said than done.

Searching around town for the best price means that money is wasted on petrol and parking charges. Apart from the poor use of time and resources, what about the people with no car?

In some places public transport is expensive, infrequent or non-existent.

Nancy does not seem to know that many people do not have the luxury of time and money to shop around. If we really had a choice, most of us would not buy a Proton but foreign cars are beyond the reach of most people.

If we had a choice, we would probably purchase sugar, oil, flour and rice from overseas where they are cheaper. The only people who benefit from the hike in the prices of everyday goods, are the crony companies. They set the exorbitant rates and the rakyat has no choice but to pay up.

If we had a choice, we would want our children to have a decent education, without paying through our noses for them to be educated overseas or in international schools.

If you try to travel cheaply around the country, you make a long detour, because the toll roads are too expensive.

What choice have the rakyat to shop around for utilities like water, electricity or telephone services? Even travel on the national carrier is not much of a choice.

If we had a choice we could read about the opposition parties in the mainstream papers and on television.

In the general election the rakyat felt that they had a choice to select the government they wanted but they were cheated of that choice. The rakyat’s preference comes with an expensive price tag for the BN politician; they lose power and status.

Mariam Mokhtar is a FMT columnist.