No-brainer Consumer Affairs Ministry...

R. NADESWARAN of theSUN is one of my favourite commentators, usually lifting my Sundaes with my CON BF. Yesterday he doled up the anticipated Thumbs Down to one minister, using Don Trump's fav compliment to a loser -- IT'S A NO-BRAINER!

Desi will try to "summarise" the GIST of an important issue from

Page 12, The Sun Weekend Jan 14-15 headlined:

Arithmetic lesson a no-brainer

Highlighted was a picture of a Billboard proclaiming:
Subsidi minyak meringankan beban anda
Depicted in 3 columns are:
Harga Sebenar of Petrol Premium at RM2.2663 selitre - Diesel at RM2.188 selitre
Anda Bayar RM1.620 selitre - RM1.281 selitre (respectively)
Subsidi Kerajaan RM1.043 selitre - RM0.907 (respectively).

Nades reported that "There are now huge billboards in the Klang Valley, giving Malaysians, civil servants included, bassic lessons in arithmetic.
These efforts did not come from the Education Ministry (it is busy counting the number of biillboards in the Universiti Malaya campus), but one by the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry.

"Now, if you thought the ministry will lead by example by using money sensibly and as a smart consumer, this whole exercise in a non-brainer that not only deserves an entry into that book for the most expensive arithmetic lesson but it could also be misleading.
The subsidies, we the stupid consumers are told, reduce the burden on us."

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Desiderata agrees with many of the arguments and questions thrown up by Nades, many have indeed been raised at Desi's Place when fuel price rises and PETRONAS' earnings -- last year's profits topped at RM35.5billion after-tax! -- and other subsidies and inflation issues came up in the national consciousness -- I pray my ER will get hold of a copy of the daily (beg the 7ELEVEN nearest thee for the precious copy-lah!)
Do right by "No Punches Pulled" Nades-the-Citizen writer by protesting to the stupid Minister in charge to put out tax-payers' money to better use.
* As Nades asked, "And if our money is taken and returned to us in the form of subsidies, what reduction of burden is there?"
** Taxpayers in the kampung or villagers -- or town centre hawkers and manual labourers riding bicycles or pulling mobile carts to earn a decent living working 7-to-5, then also 7pm till midnite -- how do they benefit from such subsidies to those better-off driving cars and worse, imported luxury oil guzzlers?

DESIDERATA had on many occasions also noted that the Government would allow the petroleum companies - who already reap huge and growing preofits every year - raise pump prices when international oil prices go up, but when the world prices come down, we don't see any corresponding fall in our pump prices. We are made to look like "stupid" consumers who can't understanding simple arith metic, isit?
Desi has also asked for the national oil resource's riches to be shared more equitably with the Rakyat -- like giving an annual bones -- like what the Singapore government rcently announced -- to the low-income groups -- one month's bonus to those earning less than RM1,000 perhaps, and half-month bonus to those earnuing less RM1,001-1,500, to be paid from Petronas' rising profits.And don't don't anyone tell ME, a Malaysian, NOT to compare with Singapore, compare with Indioensia and Thailand!

Some misguided Malaysians want others to benchmark against those lower-in-standard than us.
Me and mGf say: Go fly a kite!
In line with Pak Lah's worth ethics of striving for EXCELLENCE,
we'd like to benchmark against those countries ahead of us!

Over tha past 12 months, the everyuday basic food and household items have gone up in prices from 20 to 40 percent, a plate of noodles jumping from RM2.50 to RM3.50, eggs from 15sen to 25-30 sen each; vegetables like greens and cilis, Malaysian staples, doubling in prices; bus and taxi fares hikes, and essential goods that really hit the housewife's pocket.
Thank God for the common men like Desi, only the humble tehtarik and roti canai stayed within the reasonable rise of just 10-20sen, marking less than 20 percent rise.

So Desi joins Citizen Nades to the call to this Ministry to get its priorities right.
I covered the "Prize Scratch&Win" Scame some SE7EN years ago, and it's steal around! Moving from town to town -- I had not seen any "major" prosecutions with deterrent penalties like jail term; instead, you fiund the offenders RM1,000 to RM2,000 but his rip-offs give him tens of thousand a week!

And from theSun today, a Letter to the Editor from the Consumers Association of Penang highting the problem of enforcement of, yes, another wing of the same Ministry -- the Consumer Claims Tribunal; it's reported that up to some 20-30 percent of the cases of successful claims against corporations have NOT been paid to the claimants. And the Ministry has been shown to be a "toothless" tiger in enforcement. Desi suspects there is some hanky-panky going on, as usual.

From page 11, theSun, January 16, 2006, some more important extracts, headlined:

Ensure tribunal rulings are obeyed

"The Consumer Claims Tribunal was set up in 1999 with a noble objective to provide consumers a simple and quick method pf obtaining redress for the failure of business people to deliver their promises or for a breach of their respective contracts.
In a news report on Friday, it was stated that the tribunal rulings were ignored as companies were not settling awards.
Hence, the government's promise that the Tribunal would be a quick method of obtaining redress is not being fulfilled.

"When tribuanl awards do not evoke any fear or suffering quick punishment for defying them, the awards become useless.
"With an inefficient system of acting against those who defy the awards, the system only breeds more recalcitrant defaulters. To date, there have been no reported cases of award-defaulters being taken to copurt and sentenced for their defiance of the decisions.
"The party against whom an award is made should be required to furnish proof of compliance with the award to the respective Tribunal within two weeks of the deadline of the compliance."

DESIDERATA: Two salutes to Citizen Nades and CAP, presiodent SM MOHAMED IDRIS, for their relentless fight for consumers' rights and protection against Big Business Bullies.

Pethaps, it is a faint hope next time the Ministery of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs puts up some billboards, theyu would publicise the FIRST SCRATCH&WIN SCAMMER OR THE FIRST CORPORATE CEO DEFYING THE CONSUMER CLAIMS TRUBUNAL ORDER TO PAY BEING PUT BEHIND BARS. I'm sure Nades and others like him would NOT begrudge such spending!
Am I overly HOPEfool on a Black Monday?