After Sheila razed, now Umno delegates gripe about rising costs

While singer Sheila Majid's comments about rising costs of living earlier this week drew fierce fire from Umno and its supporters, inflation came into focus at the party annual general meeting debates yesterday.

Berita Harian today carried two pages of reports from the AGM urging the governemnt to tackle the rising cost of living

Umno Youth information chief Jamawi Jaafar was reported calling for a task force to tackle rising costs and middlemen, and action against alleged economic saboteurs, while others urged for subsidies and programmes to reduce costs.

Jamawi was reported saying the task force was needed to overcome the burden of rising costs of goods and housing that the people were facing.

“We need to be serious about addressing the people's needs,” he was reported as saying during the debate on the economy, adding prices needed to be controlled.

Yesterday Federal Territories delegate Rizalman Mokhtar complained about rising costs, saying while they give petrol handouts, they themselves could hardly afford petrol.

His remark received a rousing response from the floor.

This follows Umno information chief Annuar Musa on Wednesday berating Sheila for raising the issue of rising costs, saying she had gotten her facts wrong.

[More to follow]

- Mkini