Nation-wide cooking oil shortage is proof of another dismal failure of good governance to provide basic needs to the rakyat despite Malaysia being the largest exporter of palm oil in the world
______________
Press Statement
by Lim Guan Eng
__________________
(Petaling Jaya,
Friday):
The nation-wide cooking oil
shortage is proof of another
dismal failure of good
governance by BN to provide
basic needs to the rakyat
despite Malaysia being the
largest exporter of palm oil
in the world. I had
personally inspected some
supermarkets after receiving
complaints from consumers,
which confirmed that cooking
oil is no longer available.
Shortage of cooking oil has
caused hardship to many
consumers and businessmen.
The BN government should be
ashamed at the cooking oil
shortage as it is a great
irony that we are short of
cooking oil even though we
are the largest palm oil
producer and exporter in the
world. Such failure is
inexcusable when the
government had already
imposed a Cooking Oil Subsidy
Scheme (COSS) upon oil palm
plantation owners who had to
pay COSS amounting to more
than RM 700 million yearly to
cooking oil manufacturers in
the country. Since COSS is
sufficient to subsidise the
cost of cooking oil
production, why then is there
a cooking oil shortage in the
country?
DAP demands that the Minister
for Domestic Trade and
Industry Datuk Shafie Apdal
explain and take action
against those responsible for
the shortage, including
errant government officials
who do not have the foresight
to prevent such a shortage.
If a shortage can happen a
month before Chinese New
Year, there is every
likelihood that this will be
repeated during the festive
season.
(04/01/2008)
* Lim Guan
Eng,
Secretary-General of DAP |