Recently the price of essential items has gone up in Malaysia. Among others are the price of chicken eggs, chicken as well as cooking oil. Coupled with inflation, many Malaysians especially from the low-income group are having a nightmare and struggling to buy essential food items for their family. Families which are large are facing the brunt of the problem. Many blame the present government for the predicament. They are of the opinion that the government does not have long-term plans to keep prices at bay. It may be true as it is more important to keep prices down than to give a one-off help or to increase the pay. The increase in prices is creating a lot of dissatisfaction among Malaysians. Many are upset and angry.
So, it is no surprise that netizens were not impressed with a statement made by the Melaka Consumer Affairs director telling people to eat fewer eggs if they are pricey. The heartless statement made in a 21-second video posted on social media received many negative comments from netizens at large. They accused her of disengaging from the problems of the rakyat and hurled brickbats at her. One netizen even advised her to keep her stupidity to herself. I believe it is true that we have to open our minds before we open our mouths or else we have to bear the wrath.
Many Malaysians are already pushed to the wall and statements without much sense from irresponsible officers will break their hearts. Netizens remarked that today eggs are among the cheapest sources of protein, many poor people depend on this source of protein and to take it away is a sin. It is a luxury for People from the B40 group to have enough eggs. Most of them do not take eggs for breakfast with bread and butter. But using eggs to spice up their lunch and dinner. They can’t afford chicken and fish so what most people do is fry eggs and eat eggs with ketchup and plain rice and that’s their main meal. It is discrimination to increase the price of eggs as it is the main nutritious food for the poor.
The leaders have to take the blame. We don’t have long-term planning to ensure we are self-sufficient in the production of foodstuff. Lately, the government announced that some GLCs are going into the chicken rearing business soon to ensure there is adequate supply all the year-round. They only thought about it when there was a shortage after the Raya celebration. Why act when we don’t have enough? Don’t we have to carry an umbrella before it rains? The agricultural ministry must ensure those essential goods that we can produce must be produced in abundance to ensure a constant supply. We have a lot of empty land in each state and we have so many unemployed youths. What is needed is money to start off. The respective state agriculture departments can do funding and provide expertise. Lure the youths into agriculture and business and we will have enough essential goods all the year-round. This is plain simple
As a result of the prices of essential goods going up, many parents are reducing expenses. Many of them have to stop extra classes and tuition as they can’t afford it. Food expenses are also being reduced. At one time it was reported that many college and university students are eating instant mee as they couldn’t afford decent meals but sadly now whole families are resorting to Maggie Noodles: cepat, sedap dan murah. In South-East Asia we have the most number of skyscrapers as well as first-world facilities but it’s a mockery that many of the citizens are eating third-world food. And, the increase in the price of goods is affecting the education and health of the poor. Immediate action must be taken or else many Malaysians will become poorer and less educated. They may even drop out of school and become gangsters due to poverty.
Palaniappan Karuppan is a content writer under Headliner by Newswav, a programme where content creators get to tell their unique stories through articles and at the same time monetize their content within the Newswav app.
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