THE 14th general election will be about quinoa versus rice, DAP said, following Prime Minister Najib Razak’s comment that the imported grain was his substitute for rice.

Its parliamentary opposition leader Lim Kit Siang said what Najib ate was 23 times more expensive than rice, the staple food for 30 million Malaysians.

He said those who ate quinoa belonged to the super top 2% in Malaysia.

“I confess that before Najib made the remark, I had never heard of quinoa. I didn’t even know it existed.

“This reminds me of the Marie Antoinette story. The last queen of France before the French Revolution in 1789 supposedly said ‘let them eat cake’ when she learnt that peasants had no bread.

“The Chinese Emperor Hui of the Jin Dynasty also retorted ‘why don’t they eat meat?’ when told his people had not enough rice to eat,” Kit Siang said in a press conference in Penang today.

Najib in a live interview yesterday said he could not exercise as frequently as he wanted, so he watched his diet, replacing rice with quinoa.

“Not as often I’d like to (exercise). I like to eat. My problem is I love food. Like most Malaysians.

“But I have to control (my eating). For example, I don’t eat rice, but quinoa. My son introduced me to quinoa, a food from Peru.

“It is protein-based, so it has less carbohydrates and less sugar content, so it is better than rice,” Najib said in the live question-and-answer Budget 2018 programme.

In Malaysia, a 250g bag of organic quinoa is sold for RM14.69 at Tesco. It means 10kg will cost RM591.60.

Meanwhile, 10kg of Jasmine Super Special rice cost only RM25.85.

“(Quinoa) is quite pricey. If Najib gives me a packet, maybe I will try it.

“Maybe Najib will hand out quinoa during the election,” the Gelang Patah MP said when asked if he would try it.

Kit Siang said DAP was the first to criticise Najib for being out of touch with the plight of Malaysians, through its Segamat MP Lim Lip Eng.

“The 14th general election will be quinoa versus rice, clean government versus kleptocracy, and Najib versus the people of Malaysia,” Kit Siang said.

Meanwhile, DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng said the economy was bad, blaming the goods and services tax (GST) for the rising costs of living.

The Penang chief minister said the situation was bleaker than what Barisan Nasional was portraying.

“The rakyat is going through hardship, especially those at the bottom (lower-income families). 

“They can only eat rice, not quinoa. The higher class eats quinoa that can cost almost RM600 for 10kg. 

“We eat rice that cost about RM26 for 10kg… There are also some who can hardly afford to eat rice,” Guan Eng said at an affordable housing event in Butterworth this morning. – February 23, 2018.