Others' Bread is too salt- the Gardenia vs Massimo Bread War

Others' bread is too salt.

While our PM talks about 1Malaysia, it has not gained traction on the ground. Only in the media, one sees universal but unfortunately clueless acceptance of the concept.

On the ground, the story is quite different. We are faced with a cynical public that sees everything that affects our daily life in terms of race. It has now extended into economics and business.

Not long ago, there were attempts to discredit the popular Old Town café outlets. Rumours were spread saying that Old Towns are serving non halal food items. Clearly those rumours were aimed at discouraging Malay Muslim patrons to the outlets. Other eateries have suffered from the same irresponsible business sabotage. Nothing is worse than attacking business usually patronized by Muslims other than spreading rumours about the food being unclean or non halal. The Malay Muslim may drink and engage in sexual dalliances but eating and consuming non halal food such as pork is absolute taboo. .

Take another example. The silent bread war. Most of the public is not even aware that there is a bread war going on. On one side is Gardenia said to represent UMNO bread and Massimo- the brand produced by Uncle Bob Kuok’s business group. I wasn’t aware about the war between the gardenia brand and the Massimo brand until quite recently.

I recently heard about the matter when it was mentioned in parliament. It got the attention of Anwar Ibrahim who was reported to have mentioned that Gardenia Bread has increased its price. This prompted an in passing reply from a BN backbencher stating that he received an official statement from Gardenia bread, that it hasn’t increased its price.

Gardenia Bread is selling at RM3.20 a loaf compared to Massimo selling at RM2.50. The RM2.50 was supposed to be a promotional price. It has stayed at that level for 2 years. Nobody asked how can it do that?

The answer is they can because they sourced their flour from their own mill. Federal Flour Mill owned by Robert Kuok. In addition not many people know that all flour millers get millions of subsidy from the BN government. FFM gets some RM80 million in subsidies as a flour miller. One, they source from their own mill. Two, they can pass the RM80 million subsidy from the government to consumers. Consumers can enjoy Massimo bread at RM2.50 courtesy also by the UMNO led government.

Gardenia does not have its own flour mill. It does not enjoy government subsidy. It sells its premium wheat germ bread at RM3.20 a loaf.

Why has the battle gone overboard so as to drag the innocent bread consumed by whomever who wants to, into a business involving the various communities in our country? Gardenia is said to represent the Malay bread while Massimo represents the Chinese bread.

Gardenia is 30% owned by Syed MOkhtar while Massimo brand is owned by Robert Kuok. Both are small change in their respective business empire.

Sometime ago, I have written about Gardenia in so far as Syed Mokhtar’s involvement is concerned. My objection is what more does he want? He has all the fingers and toes and whatever bodily projections he has, in every economic facet in this country. I was disturbed at the tentacles of the man reaching out entwining everything, leading me to question is he the only Malay in the country?

As to the bread itself, I have no quarrel and have been consuming the brand without thinking that Syed Mokhtar is 30% owner. He or his people are not involved in the manufacture of the bread nor its distribution. He is the owner by virtue of owning Bernas. Bernas already owned 30% of gardenia together with its Singapore partners. When Bernas was taken over by Syed MOkhtar, the 30% ownership vested in him automatically. That is the extent of his ownership. He got ownership through Bernas.

So my question is why make the innocent bread suffer because of our politics? This will be explored in the ensuing article.