Understanding the beras Imbroglio. Tales by an unknown blogger. No 53.

1. Fuyooh, the PM has announced that Syed mokhtar has agreed to give 30m to padi farmers. The right wing groups and other Malay supremacists are quick to point to the benevolence of a Malay potentate. Hurrah!

2. Forgive my sarcasm and cynicism. I really salute and appreciate the 30m. Given. It's damn a lot of money. To a person like me, to get 100 ringgit is already difficult.

3. What we probably don't know is, that 30m is 10% of the abnormal profits Syed mokhtar makes in a month! Also, what does he get in return? A guarantee that he gets to retain the monopoly over rice imports? Unobstructed Access to the pm and other sweetheart deals?

4. Imagine if tuan Syed mokhtar teams up with other potentates and start giving out money,what do we have? A plutocracy!

5. Combined with those who have amassed political power , we have a combination between plutocracy and oligarchy.

6. The triumphant and celebratory announcement by the PM, can herald the coming of plutocratic oligarchy.

7. With many doltish characters in the government we have a kakistocracy plutocratic oligarchy. Like the pekan people say, waber!

8. Or, poh pale aok'! Waber kite wok!

9. Even if the floor price for our padi farmers is raised to 1800, the rice issue is not a mic drop!

10. This business of throwing and dropping of mics is the Hallmark of mat shabu2. When he does that he thrills the crowd .

11. The crowd acclaimed, hebak abang mat. Macam pok ya concoday(Concorde). Hok kawin budok ttino 17 tahun. Bau badan pun belum begheh!

12. You all have heard of Murphy's law right? Work expands so as to fill the time available.

13. In our case, the price of inputs increase as opportunity expands. The opportunity is the increase in the floor price. The suppliers of inputs will surely increase the price of inputs given the rise in the floor price

14. What happens then? Eventually, the cost of inputs will eat up into the new floor price of 1500 and farmers will again ask for new floor price. This will be a vicious cycle.

15. Let's not talk of productivity as a resultant. Ie as in how many tons per acre or hectare

16. Instead let's talk about the beginning - what are the immediate factors that cause how much we produce per size of a farm.

17. We will then talk about the inputs going into padi production. Things like the quality of seeds, the herbicides, the pesticides, farm equipments like portable pumps, hoses, planting equipments, tilling machinery,right up to the end story like harvesting machines, dehusking machines and maybe as in some countries, portable milling machines. Most of these machines don't run on mat sabu's saliva. They run on diesel. We have to talk about diesel then.

18. The labour part is a given. Mending bunds, pumping water, planting seeds, applying herbicides and pesticides etc. Malay farmers work as hard as the sekinchan farmers. Except perhaps the sekinchan farmers have better supporting facilities.

19. So don't go around saying Malay farmers are lazy. At noon under the blazing sun they might be pumping water, even manually scooping the water with buckets because the pumps are not working or leaking . Don't tell them to pull out the rumput and lalang perhaps because the herbicides the farmers buy are not effective.

20. The MOA people seems so besotted and sayang sangat the monopolistic suppliers of inputs. They appear to be overly protective. We never hear nafas being asked to donate 30-40b to padi farmers despite making billions over the years

21. So asking Syed mokhtar to donate millions and asking maybe others too, is actually a fire fighting strategy

22. It's not a triumphant strategy and a celebration of Malay philanthropy.

23. Try liberalise the inputs supply market. Padi farmers can buy from the free market. For instance, why reserve a few areas for nafas. Why call tenders if at all? Just give contracts to nafas. Don't dupe the public of showing being above board and playing fair.

24. Wasn't nafas embroiled in the 1. 8b Baja supply? On top of that, there is a 1.2b variation order?

25. Have we asked, who approved the VO? Must be the top officers at MOA, mof and maybe technical endorsement from Mardi.

26. This confirms the existence of the ' deep state' within the MOA. Ie the collusion between top officers and business.

27. Possibly many get angpows,go for holidays while some get their frequent,'massat services' and make happy days .

28. The floor price has been increased from 1300 to 1500. Some 15%. Good.

29. But what happens if the input suppliers also increase their price by some percentage points? Wouldn't that eat into the newly triumphantly declared floor price? Saayya!

30. Which means, you don't sort out the beras Imbroglio without 'destroying' the monopolistic supplies chain .

31. Just who are the officers and economists who advised the agricultural minister and the PM? Did they get their degrees from capcay universities?

32. How much will the plants/mills charge the famers. They have their own cost elements to look after. Diesel, equipments, spare parts, lubricants, consumables etc. Now that the floor price has increased, they may want to increase their processing charges too.

33. The combination of higher prices by input suppliers and plants will eat into the increased floor price. Raising the floor price to 1500 comes to naught. Next year the farmers will ask for another raise. Tablay into macam, la tamby dei!

34. Let us say, the mills charge 300 per ton. The price per ton ex plant, own collection is 1800. Delivered 1900 per ton.

35. The government sets a controlled price of 3000 ex retail points. This enables retailers sell rice at 30 per 10kg.

36. Between the plants and retail points, there's a spread of 1100 to 1200.per ton. Let's assume, retailers make 200 per ton.

37. Who makes between 900 to 1000 per ton? Why, the middlemen conglomerates of course!

38. Where's the incentive for farmers to produce more beras putih? The additional income they earned will go to input suppliers and plants. Farmers will be subjected to a variant of the backward bending supply curve of labour .

39..so, agriculture minister tuan, you won't solve the beras issue by piecemeal methods and adopt a fire fighting strategy. Study the rice industry as a whole.

40. And just because bernas is owned by the great Malay Syed m, you described as a superbly managed outfit owned by a great philanthropy ..don't touch! My middle finger is up. It's a bloody monopoly la!

41. Next I hope to write something about felda . Writing about an entity for which I am familiar with.