Govt always helps tackle rising costs, says Ismail Sabri

Updated 6 years ago · Published on 19 Feb 2018 3:52PM · 1 Comments

Rural and Regional Development Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob says the government has always 'intervened' to ensure people are not burned by rising prices of goods. – The Malaysian Insight file pic, February 19, 2018.

THE “Sentuhan Rakyat” programme, which sells daily necessities at low prices, is proof that the government has never let the people face the rising cost of living on their own, said Ismail Sabri Yaakob.

The rural and regional development minister said although there was no denying the rise in prices of goods today, the government also “intervened” to ensure that people were not burdened.

He said the government cannot control prices entirely because in a free market, prices are determined by demand and supply.

“However, the government that we have today is a responsible one. We do not completely leave it to the user to determine the price fluctuation, but the government also intervenes.

“For example, the price control scheme during festive seasons, Kedai Rakyat 1Malaysia and the ‘Sentuhan Rakyat’ sales are among government efforts to ensure the welfare of the people continues to be taken care of,” he said after launching the ‘Sentuhan Rakyat’ sales programme at in Bera today.

At the programme held at the Bera district Umno office, a total of 30 items including eggs, milk, sugar, rice, ketchup and chicken were sold below market price to attract more than 2,000 people from nearby areas.

Ismail Sabri who is also Bera MP said the sales programme received an overwhelming response from the people, especially those in rural areas and low-income groups.

“But we cannot have a programme like this more than twice a month because it will affect other retail traders,” he said.

Meanwhile, housewife Siti Sanah Sulaiman, 50, from Felda Tementi was very happy that such a programme was held in Bera.

“The price is cheap and affordable when compared to the market price. For example fresh chicken is sold at RM7.50 per kg at the market, but here it is sold at RM6.50 per kg, she said. – Bernama, February 19, 2018.

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  • Ismail Sabri has just confirmed that the statistics on consumer price index produced by the Statistics department is incorrect because they will be collecting controlled prices of items. That is why inflation in Malaysia is many time higher than the official statistics. The government has to control the prices of basic commodities because the people cannot afford them. They cannot afford basic commodities because the economy in the country is not sustainable. The root cause is the mismanagement of human resources in the country. Government servants in Malaysia number the highest per capita in the world. The people who should be producing goods and services are simply sitting round to be pen pushers. Malaysia has ample land to produces food and vegetables. But other than the rubber and palm oil plantation, the government hardly provide land to the landless for crop cultivation. Thus local produces do not satisfy local demands and foods have to be import. Malaysians like Singaporeans are dependent on imported foods, with the difference that our purchasing power is just one third of Singapore based on exchange rate. Since Mahathir's view that Malays should not even be drivers for Chinese tycoon until NEP can end, That is why we have 5 million foreign legal and illegal workers. The domestic servants might help to make double-pay families earn their keep. But while labour intensive factories do get cheap labour, Malaysians in general pay the social costs. The huge number of civil servants is the results of race-based political parties. How racism has killed this land!

    Posted 6 years ago by Meng Kow Loh · Reply