I support the calls made by 20 student groups, including University of Malaya (UM) Students’ Union, International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) Student Union, and University of Malaya Association of New Youth, for taking to the street to protest if the government fails to tackle the rising prices.
The Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs announced that the ceiling prices of chicken and eggs will be removed from July 1, while the subsidies for palm cooking oil in bottles of two, three, and five kilograms will be discontinued. A few days later, Prime Minister Ismail Sabri made a U-turn due to pressure, announcing that the new ceiling price for chicken will be decided soon. In the wake of the ever-increasing food prices, the UM Students’ Union and IIUM Student Union issued a joint statement, calling for the government to resolve the issue or face street protest.
The strongly-worded joint statement of the student groups reflected that the skyrocketing prices of goods is an issue of great magnitude. However, the BN-PN government is still very much engrossed in the power grab at this juncture, while the middle and low-income groups, including varsity students, are facing the ever-increasing financial burden due to inflation that is spiraling out of control.
The BN-PN government often formulates policies without consulting the public and flip-flops only when the rakyat have voiced their dissatisfaction. The government’s action proves that it does not understand the rakyat’s hardship but keeps releasing messages that confuse the market instead of tackling the issue of high inflation.
When the inflation is at an all-time high, the government scraps various subsidies for staple food but only increases the cash assistance for the B40 group by RM50 to RM100. One can’t help but think that the meager increment is an insult to the vulnerable groups, which does not really help lessen their financial burden.
Furthermore, as for the root causes of the rising prices of food, such as high feed costs and labor shortages in the agricultural sector, we have not seen any visionary long-term solutions being proposed by the government thus far. Therefore, it is foreseeable that the inflation crisis will continue to weigh on the rakyat and even exacerbate in the coming weeks or months.
Earlier on, the government acted all high and mighty by accusing the chicken farmers of stockpiling to increase the prices of chicken. Such a response amid market turbulence proved that the high-ranking officials were out of touch with the market but chose to confuse the general public via misinformation. In the end, the market is rendered chaotic, and thus inflation has worsened.
Given that the student groups have specifically put forward their demands for the government to tackle inflation or face street protest, the BN-PN government must stop its endless infighting for political power. Instead, the government must listen to varsity students, industry players, as well as the general public, and implement effective middle and long-term solutions in order to stabilize the market. Cushioning the market from severe turbulences will help prevent the food prices from skyrocketing and minimize the impact of economic consequences brought about by high inflation.