Category: Consumer Affairs

Ketua Pembangkang and DAP Secretary-General, Mr. Lim Kit Siang, today issued the following statement (24.9.1973):

LPN should reorganize itself to eliminate maladministration, inefficiency, bungling, corruption and bureaucratism

On Saturday, 22nd Sept., while I was motoring up to Penang to attend the 7th Anniversary Dinner of the Penang DAP, I experienced first hand how stupidly, without imagination whatsoever, the authorities are trying to cope with the second rice crisis this year.

Leaving Bagan Serai and the Perak State Border, and coming to the Sungai Krian Bridge, there was a roadblock and check, presumably to prevent the people of Perak from smuggling rice into Penang.

Having passed the roadblock and crossed the Sungai Krian Bridge, there was another roadblock, this time presumably to prevent the people of Penang from smuggling rice into Perak.

The distance between the two roadblocks is hardly 100 feet, separated only by the Sungai Frin Bridge. Continue reading LPN should reorganize itself to eliminate maladministration, inefficiency, bungling, corruption and bureaucratism

Speech by Ketua Pembangkang, DAP Secretary-General and Member of Parliament for Bandar Melaka, Mr. Lim Kit Siang, at the Seventh Penang DAP Anniversary Dinner held at Fortune Restaurant on Saturday, 22nd Sept. 1973 at 9 p.m.

To counter soaring prices, DAP calls on government to (a) make immediate payment of a COLA of 40% of salary to all low-paid government employees; and (ii) issue a Cabinet guideline to all private employers to make a similar 40% COLA payment to their employees

For over a year, there has been continuous and rapid rise in prices accompanied by continuous fall in the purchasing power of the Malaysian dollar, bringing acute sufferings and hardships to the majority of Malaysians who have low or fixed incomes.

The consumers and the poor have been made to bear the full brunt of the inflation, with the rich getting away scot-free. All the price increases, whether stemming from imported or domestic inflation, price-fixing by cartels and monopoly enterprises, artificial manipulation of the market, or from the government’s highly inflationary fiscal policies such as the Sales Tax, are simply passed on to the final consumers.

Under the present free enterprise system, it is easy for capitalists to insist and maintain their huge profit margins before the inflation. In facts, there are even capitalists who take this opportunity of inflation and confusion to inflate their huge profit margins. Thus, last month, the Finance Minister, Tun Tan Siew Sin, admitted that one of the major causes of inflation was that some importers make profits of 100 per cent or more.
Continue reading DAP wants the LPN and Government to tell the people the full facts about the rise situation in the country

Press Statement by Lim Kit Siang, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Bandar Melaka on 9 August 1973:

The Finance Minister, Tun Tan Siew Sin, said yesterday that one of the major causes of inflation can be traced to some importers making profits of 100 per cent or more, because of their monopolistic and price-fixing practices.

For the past few months, the Alliance leaders, including the Prime Minister, Tun Abdul Razak, had put the blame on the shop-keepers and have even advocated a boycott of retail shops.

The DAP, however, had consistently pointed out that the root problem is not the shopkeepers although there may be some hoarding and profiteering but the prices fixed at source either by the manufacturers, the wholesalers or the importers.

We are glad that the Finance Minister, Tun Tan Siew Sin, has at last realised this, and has given instances of how despite the devaluation of British and American currencies, the prices of British and American imports have not gone down correspondingly. On the contrary, their prices have gone up instead. Continue reading DAP calls for effective government action to arrest price inflation in Malaysia

Speech by DAP Secretary-General and Member of Parliament for Bandar Melaka, Mr.Lim Kit Siang, at DAP Public Rally at Kluang on July 29 at 10p.m.

Rising Prices – DAP accuses Alliance Government of only paying lip-service without doing anything concrete to counter inflation in the country

Inside and outside Parliament, Alliance Ministers had expressed concern about rising prices, but it is unfortunate that apart from paying lip-service, the government has not shown any will or ability to check the galloping inflation in the country.

In the last one week, more and more items have increased in price. Only a few days ago, we read of a wide-ranging increase in the prices of meat, which had already increased many times in the past few months. Only just now, I have been informed that bar of Lux soap has gone up in price from 40 cents to 50 cents.

The people of Malaysia are no more interested in reading about speeches and statements by Alliance leaders and Ministers about their concern about inflation and rising prices. They want firm and effective government action to stop this runaway inflation. Continue reading Alliance Government’s lip-service to counter inflation