My regular Saturday lunch is home cooked fried or wanton noodles . My wife ould buy the noodles and taugeh (bean sprouts) from her regular noodle seller at our local wet market.
Last Saturday morning, she had a distressing moment. Taugeh is RM1 per pack, up 100% from 50 sen, warned the noodle seller .
The massive increase, although not heart stopping but for a few nanoseconds , her senses deserted her. She eventually blinked , processed the warning , analyzed the situation, checked her purse , racked her brains for alternatives , came up with none, bit the bullet and bought one packet of bean sprouts, now RM1 instead of the normal 50 sen which she had been paying for ages.
She decided our Saturday indulgence of home cooked fried or wanton noodles with taugeh still beats eating out especially since we are pensioners and prices of food and daily goods have not come down even when our Ringgit strengthened a lot before the Iranian war.
The missus is the Finance Minister at home and when she returned home , she warned of cutbacks and reduced treats. Her reasoning was that if this simple, easily and widely grown locally, easily transported and minimum no fuss packaged vegetable increased by 100%, other foods and vegetables will most likely increase too and soon.
Another Finance Minister had the same bad news. Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim of course had more than taugeh prices to worry about and his treats likely do not involve this common sprout. His troubles are many but his treats are more likely to be more exotic and expensive than mine to compensate for the many concerns surrounding oil prices .
Anwar mentioned oil prices are on the up and up because of the Iranian war and restricted passage through the Straits of Hormuz and resulting in higher prices for daily items and food . Diesel, the default fuel for transportation of goods, is particularly affected .
I did a check on how bean sprouts could be affected by diesel. Taugeh are grown from mung beans soaked in water and kept in the dark for three days. All they need is a constant change of water and our water remains one of the cheapest worldwide.
Sure , a lot of the mung beans are imported and prices have gone up but I don’t think it is on the scale to double up bean sprout prices. I am now like the taugeh in the dark about how the price doubled up.
The government, especially the Finance Minister, instead of merely warning us of inevitable price increase, must put a handle not only on my sprouts but on other daily food items too.
Anthony Loke did warn Malaysians even earlier and said it is no joke . The country is in a crisis mode. And immediate drastic action must be taken before food prices sprout even higher .
I offer below some suggestions to bring down the price of taugeh and hopefully other vegetables and food items as admittedly I do indulge in other inexpensive treats other than fried or wantan noodles.
The price of RON 95 must be revised back to RM2.05/liter. The additional revenue collected can then be used to further subsidize diesel for transporting food and daily items .
WFH( work from home) of at least three days must be made mandatory for all government servants even if they live within the 8km radius . For the private sector, the government must actively cajole them to have WFH for at least one or more days.
Air conditioning, where appropriate, must be set mandatory at 25°C or higher at all government and private buildings.
Congestion charges in cities must no longer be postponed until conditions are perfect for its implementation. It is the near perfect time now as there is a vital need to reduce fuel consumption and it will indirectly help reduce the now frequent heat waves in cities and big towns.
Provide free public transport to all Malaysians under 24 to get them hooked on public transport instead of being caught hook , line and sinker by motor vehicle repayments at the start of their working lives. Between the hours of 10am to 3pm, let all citizens enjoy a 20% discount on all public transport.
All schools, universities, colleges , hospitals, clinics, army and police camps , prisons , government warehouses or stores and government offices must have at least 40% of its roof areas installed with solar panels.
I am an ardent environmentalist by choice and action but in a time where many people may have to pay more and eat less due to rising fertilizers costs, I would like to suggest strict controlled and monitored extraction of bats’ guano from caves. This natural fertilizer should be used until artificial fertilizer cost does not become an extravagant add-on cost to growing vegetables or further extraction can cause irreversible environmental damage to the caves’ environment.
Time now to impose a minimum of 50 sen or a total ban of plastic bags for all states. Plastic are petroleum products and reducing this import will help in reducing costs. The country has been pussy footing with the plastic ban far too long and this is an opportune time to impose the ban and save costs and the environment.
The people in power must pitch in and lead by sacrifice and example. The multiple pensions enjoyed by elected representatives must be reduced to only one single pension. MPs allowances must be reduced and overseas travel must be limited and accommodation allowances must be downgraded by one notch.
And ditch the warm suits in Parliament and state assemblies and up the air conditioning temperature there. Batik is cool and equally sartorial and supporting local industry and we should be proud to be clothed in our national heritage.
We hope no person in power now will advise the people to eat kangkong while they enjoy Quino, unlike someone a while back. With rising fertilizer and transport costs, kangkong may no longer be the go-to vegetable when money is tight.
The world’s problems continue to sprout ever so frequently and affect most of us financially, environmentally and emotionally. Financially , most of us have become bean counters, stretching and turning every penny to try to live comfortably and eat decently.
Environmentally, if we adopt the above or more, the present and future generations could have a better chance of a better and cleaner earth. When all is well financially and environmentally, our emotional selves can be expected to be stable and positive.
Our government must not be like the taugeh, sprouting in the dark. They must look into the bright light of solutions and alternatives so that its citizens can indulge in their little treats without anxiety and despair.
Koo Wee Hon (kooweehon@gmail.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
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