Teo: Chinese traders being made scapegoats

“Ismail Sabri and the BN government should take full responsibility for their failure to control price hikes.”

JOHOR BAHRU: Kulai MP Teo Nie Ching stressed in a statement on Tuesday that the belated clarification of Agriculture and Agro-based Industries Minister, Ismail Sabri Yaakob, that he did not mean all Chinese traders but only “stubborn Chinese traders” who refuse to cut prices does not make him any less racist.

“As a matter of fact, most traders, regardless of their race, have not lowered prices since the drop in fuel costs,” said Teo who is also DAP Assistant National Publicity Secretary.

“Yes, we did not see Vincent Tan lower the prices of products his businesses sell!”

But did Syed Mokhtar AlBukhary, Mokhzani Mahathir and Ananda Krishnan lower the prices of their products?”

“So, why single out Chinese traders?” she asked. “As a consumer, I also would very much like to exercise my power to compel businesses to lower prices.”

If she could, the MP said, the first company that she would like to boycott would be TNB, as it has refused to lower electricity tariffs despite the fact that the price of coal has dropped by 21 per cent since January 2014.

However, she continued, it is obvious that boycotting TNB was not an option unless one is prepared to live without electricity.

So, who allows TNB to monopolise the electricity market in the first place?

Or, we should perhaps boycott the Prime Minister who has agreed with TNB not to lower tariffs?

“Ismail Sabri and the BN government should take full responsibility for their failure to control price hikes,” she stressed, “and not make Chinese traders into scapegoats.”