‘Better to boycott govt than traders’

MP Ariff Sabri weighs in on the controversy over the Agriculture Minister's call against profiteers.

PETALING JAYA: It’s more important to probe the reasons why incomes have remained stagnant than moan about rising prices, says Raub MP Ariff Sabri Abdul Aziz in his latest blog posting.

He says he will not be surprised if it turns out that those holding up the “Je suis Ismail Sabri” banners are big recipients of Applied Permits for food products.

“The Malays still don’t understand,” he writes. “The danger we’re facing is not a fight between Malays and Chinese or some other race. Stories about fighting the Chinese arise whenever the Umno government wants to divert society’s attention from its bad governance.”

He alleges that the government has mismanaged the economy, resulting in the drop in the value of the ringgit, leading to drastic increases in the prices of imported items.

“Instead of boycotting traders, we should boycott the government for standing by idly as the value of the ringgit continues to plummet,” said Ariff . “It’s clear that the government is incompetent.”

He says there are deeper issues at stake, like monopolies and the tendency of the government to intervene in the market instead of liberalising it and allowing increases in supplies.

“Bernas is the worst monopoly in the country. The market should be opened up for the import of food items. There’s no reason to give APs to just one or two Umno cronies. At present, for example, imports of red and white onions and shallots are all monopolies.”

Ariff believes that members of the public would rather see incomes rise than make noise about rising prices.

“Prices are sticky downwards. Once prices rise, it’s difficult for them to come down. The people would prefer to see a rise in their real incomes.”

He quotes figures from the Statistics Department. “The consumer price index jumped 2.7% in December. The prices of food items and non-alcoholic beverages have, on average, increased by 2.4% . Eggs, chicken, kale, spinach, cucumbers have all gone up.”

“The cost of living is rising, the standard going down. Even the price of the humble kangkung – which Najib likes to shout about – has gone up by 2.8 per cent.”