I say Brader Anwar, where to hoard a farmload of chicken? Up the b_nt_t kah?

 

 

As I keep saying again and again, whether it is the government leaders or the opposition leaders these d_mbos have absolutely no clue about business, finance, economics  or anything even remotely connected with the economy. 

1. Recall one deputy minister said lets print more paper money to overcome the economic crisis. He had absolutely no idea what he was talking about.

2. Another MP said charge the glove manufacturers windfall taxes during the Covid crisis.  Now since the oil prices have shot up, why not impose windfall taxes on the oil companies? I am just using the same logic.

3. Then the present prime minister decided that "declaring war" on the middlemen was the right thing to do to fight high prices. Somehow to this son of poor rubber tappers (according to him) who cant speak English too well, some booming voice from the sky told him that the middlemen were the culprits.

4. Now we have Brader Anwar Ibrahim calling chicken farmers "bloodsuckers" who are hoarding chickens.  Here is Free Malaysia Today:

https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2022/07/08/try-running-a-chicken-farm-anwar-told

 

• Poultry farmers hit back at Anwar Ibrahim for calling them “bloodsuckers” 
• accusing them of hoarding supplies to drive up chicken prices.
• Anwar urged government to go after “unscrupulous chicken suppliers” 
• Jeffrey Ng, adviser to Malaysian livestock federation, said chicken suppliers “have to feed our workers and families. Is that what a bloodsucker is?”
• Ng said suppliers had no good reason to hoard chickens since doing so would mean having to continue feeding them and thereby increasing costs.
• hoarding chickens would result in bigger bird sizes
• chickens exceeding market size draw enquiries from ministry.
• Johor Poultry Breeders said Anwar’s statement unwarranted 
• “We can earn less but we cannot be running at a loss” he said.
• country will lose supply of chickens if chicken farming no longer profitable.

Clearly here Brader Anwar, the Malay Studies graduate, is showing his level of competence.

How do you hoard chicken? These are live animals.  Hoarded or not hoarded the chicken still need food, water and warmth at night. 

This means the chicken farmer must continue to incur expenses to feed the chickens everyday and keep them warm at night in the chicken coops (by using heat lamps which consume a lot of electricity). All this costs money.

So what kind of hoarding is it when the chicken farmer continues to incur costs but he does not sell his chicken? Guna lah otak sikit brader?

You cannot hoard chicken. Neither can you hoard other live animals like goats and cows. The longer you keep them the more money you lose to feed and water them. 

So obviously the charge that chicken farmers are bloodsuckers and hoarders was just bullshit sloganeering (besides being fitnah). 

This is at the same level as the prime minister declaring that the middlemen were responsible for price hikes. This is village level understanding of things. 

It is also reaching out to the village level thinking of the supporters.

if the supporters like to hear that war should be declared on middlemen or that chicken farmers are bloodsuckers then that is what they will be told. This seems to be the mental capacity of the politicians - on all sides. 

I have a question for brader Anwar. How come he has never brought up the issue of the rice monopoly in the country? The government has granted a rice monopoly to one bumiputera company. 

Last time everyone made noise when Robert Kuok was granted the sugar monopoly in Malaysia. Ok fine. So how come now the Malay politicians like brader Anwar do not complain when a bumiputera company holds the monopoly over rice imports? 

Is there any economic textbook in the world which says that monopolies are ok if they are given to Malay bumiputera Muslim businesses?  Do they teach that at the Al Fakultiyah Al Kulliyah Al Ekonomiyah Al Auta-lah?

Brader Anwar, the Indians still want to know - if you are in charge will Indian students who qualify (or over qualify) with As and Bs who apply for medical seats at government universities be given places? Or will the racial quota system still be in place?

The high prices of chicken will not be solved overnite. Tell the prime minister to cancel the ban on chicken exports to Singapore. It will help reduce the prices of chicken.

Here is the simple logic. Chicken farmers from Johor have been exporting chickens to Singapore since the British built the causeway in 1924. In Pagoh, Muar etc there are many chicken farms that cater to both Singapore and Malaysian markets. Lets say a chicken farmer has two acres of land, complete with chicken coops, watering, feeding and lighting systems in place. Lets say he exports the output from one acre to Singapore and sells the chickens from the other acre in Malaysia. 

Now suddenly export of chicken to Singapore is not allowed. And he can only sell one acre's worth of chicken in Malaysia. 

So how is he going to cover the fixed costs of his investments (chicken coop, cost of land etc) for the two acres of his chicken farm?

He will have no choice but to increase the selling price of the chicken in Malaysia. 

That is why despite the ban on exports of chicken to Singapore, the price of chicken has not come down. There is now a higher cost burden on the chicken farmers.

So tell the prime minister to cancel that  ban on the export of chicken to Singapore.

Tell the prime minister to remove the APs on the import of frozen chickens. Let anyone import frozen chickens. You will see the prices of chicken drop overnite. 

Err...giving import APs to importers by race, religion and language may not help the situation. It will make things worse. 

Bloodsuckers might hoard dry goods like imported rice. 

But only a fool will hoard live animals like chickens and cows. 

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.