Farmers need to be protected, not killed, says CASSA President
ATHIRA AMINUDDIN
SHAH ALAM - Politicians and influential groups should be protecting the farmers and the agricultural community instead of depressing them, says Consumers Association of Subang and Shah Alam (CASSA) president Datuk Seri Jacob George.
“We have been using price controls to hit them, and we feel like it’s a silver bullet to depress the price as much as possible so that politically the politicians are winning. You kill your food providers, farmers, fishermen, poultry farmers, and others.
“Those powerful people kill our food providers and take away land that farmers, fishermen and poultry farmers have been working on for centuries or decades,” Jacob said during Sinar Daily’s Wacana English Edition held at Kompleks Karangkraf Shah Alam on Thursday.
He claimed that it was ridiculous as nobody reported on the responsible parties that were causing the issue.
“They replace the lands for constructions or Musang King (durian), which I do not understand why they are touching and coming for something that is close to our heart, the food,” Jacob said.
Despite setting up multiple security agencies for farmers, he went on to say that it was not sufficient and an audit was needed to look after the well-being of this group.
“There are Federal Agricultural Marketing Authority (Fama) and other agricultural ministries but is there an audit on them?
“They have assets, funds and a large workforce but in terms of productivity, we are still where we were 30 or 40 years ago and we are going down the drain,” said Jacob, voicing his concern for the white elephants that were working to make ends meet and the producers that were struggling to accommodate consumers.
Jacob added there was a need for a paradigm shift and there must be a political will to say enough is enough.
On Sinar Daily’s talk show, he and two other panellists, economist Professor Jomo Kwame Sundaram and agricultural policy analyst Professor Datin Paduka Fatimah Mohamed Arshad, discuss the food crisis affecting Malaysia and future generations.
