Fomca chief offers to be ‘consumer adviser’ for much less than RM55,000

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November 29, 2021 7:36 PM
PETALING JAYA: Hit by an avalanche of complaints from the people on rising prices of essentials over the last few months, Federation of Malaysian Consumers Associations president N Marimuthu has offered himself to be the prime minister’s “consumer adviser”.

He said since the domestic trade and consumer affairs ministry has failed miserably to bring down the prices as promised, Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob may need to add one more to his growing number of personal advisers despite having a ministry for each of the categories.

Marimuthu promised to do the job for much less than the RM55,000 paid to Ismail’s many advisers.

“Fomca has been receiving non-stop complaints from the rakyat on how prices have skyrocketed with the government failing to check this trend. They don’t understand we don’t have the power to check the traders.

“The ministry should do much, much more than pay mere lip service. I advise the minister to go to the markets personally and see for himself. I guess he is now busy in Sarawak for the upcoming elections where I understand he is a key player,” he told FMT.

He did not name the minister, Alexander Nantha Linggi, who hails from Sarawak.

Marimuthu, who is also the Consumer International president, said since the prime minister seemed to have no qualms about appointing advisers for portfolios that already have ministers and deputy ministers which is costing taxpayers huge amounts of money, “one more won’t hurt”.

“The current advisers cost the government about RM55,000 each and that is a lot of money. I can do the job for a quarter of that amount to advise the prime minister on how to check and bring down the prices to help the rakyat,” he said.

He said the prices of basic necessities needed to survive daily have skyrocketed and this was the biggest problem faced by families especially from the B40 category.

Ismail appointed envoys to selected regions as his advisers, namely Bintulu MP Tiong King Sing (China), Serian MP Richard Riot Jaem (East Asia), PAS chief Abdul Hadi Awang (Middle East) and MIC chief SA Vigneswaran (South Asia).

In addition, Pengerang MP Azalina Othman was made the law and human rights adviser, and Kedah Umno chief Jamil Khir Baharom as religious adviser.

Source: https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2021/11/29/fomca-chief-offers-to-be-consumer-adviser-for-much-less-than-rm55000/