ONCE known as the “poor man’s fish”, the possibility that ikan kembung might become a price-controlled item is perhaps a better economic indicator for ordinary Malaysians instead of growth figures issued by the government.
The price of the humble fish in the mackerel family has been rising since the introduction of the goods and services tax (GST) in 2015.
The poor GST has been innocently blamed for the rise in a non-GST-ed item, namely fresh food including fresh fish.
Since the news involve a Malay family, the clever fake news apportioning nonsensical blame to the GST for the rise in raw ikan kembung price must go to a Malay political party.
Who is it then?
PKR (don't be mistaken that PKR is none other than a Malay political party)?
Pribumi?
PAS?
HY, don't blame the DAP as it's a Chinese-Indian party and very few Malay families listen to it, wakakaka.
Another factor has been fluctuating petrol prices. Prior to the GST, kembung or Indian mackerel, fetched around RM8 per kilo at the market.
Why prior to GST? Ikan kembung is NOT GST-ed so prior to or post GST, the fish is still not GST-ed. Stop f**king bullshitting.
Another factor has been fluctuating petrol prices. Prior to the GST, kembung or Indian mackerel, fetched around RM8 per kilo at the market.
Why prior to GST? Ikan kembung is NOT GST-ed so prior to or post GST, the fish is still not GST-ed. Stop f**king bullshitting.
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Indian mackeral is a real (not fake) fish |
In the past year, the price of kembung, the fish that sets the benchmark for other types of fish, has fluctuated between RM16 and RM22 per kilo throughout the country, causing consumers to adjust their diets besides buying less. [...]
Let me see how we can blame the GST?
Noting that the hike in prices not just for fish but for seafood overall, Siti Zahara who is anaemic said she often buys cockles when the dizziness gets the best of her but has also cut down on that of late.
“The doctor advised me to eat cockles or liver (as an iron supplement) because of my anaemic condition.
“Before GST, cockles cost about RM4 per kilo. Now it’s about RM10. So, I buy half a kilo. You can imagine how little that is when cooked.”
Noting that the hike in prices not just for fish but for seafood overall, Siti Zahara who is anaemic said she often buys cockles when the dizziness gets the best of her but has also cut down on that of late.
“The doctor advised me to eat cockles or liver (as an iron supplement) because of my anaemic condition.
“Before GST, cockles cost about RM4 per kilo. Now it’s about RM10. So, I buy half a kilo. You can imagine how little that is when cooked.”
Well, I have to say there is a '6' there (a la 6% GST?), but the news has the '6' as a difference between a so-called pre-GST kerang at RM4 to a post-GST kerang at RM10, though again there is no GST on cockles.
How bullshit has been the news.
Even if there is (and to reiterate, there is no GST on kerang), 6% of RM4 only amounts to a round figure of 25 sen. But the point is how fake news have (deliberately?) exaggerated the impact of GST on a non-GST-ed item, to wit, from RM4 to a staggering RM10.
The fake news could only be described as highly mischievous or even evil. Very unscrupulous lah!
I am aware that The Malaysian Insight was previously The Malaysian Insider but really, the Editor should have exercised a bit more prudence and discern what is correct news and what is obviously bullshit.
Tru KTemoc,
ReplyDeleteFresh foods like fresh fish and cockles (kerang) are GST-exempt, along with other essentials like baby formula, medicines, etc.
On the other hand, many processed foods are subject to GST.
Here is a list of items subject to and exempt from GST.
http://gst.customs.gov.my/PdfFile.html
Unfortunately, many, including myself, easily get caught up with the coffee shop talk going around the Internet that the effects of the GST "burden" the lower income group who tend to vote BN abd could vote otherwise as a result.
This is not entirely untrue, since they also buy items which are subject to GST but the overall burden on them is not all that heavy as those of us who can afford to buy a pricey signature iced-blend latte or a bottle of premium single malt whisky or a bottle of 24-year aged premium brandy may think.
I have always been and still am a DAP supporter but nonetheless fake news such as what I have written above, even if disadvantageous to BN, still repulse me - it's blatantly dishonest and I can't stand that
DeleteTo add, there however are valid questions as to why the price of a "poor man's food" such as ikan kembong (Indian mackeral) and kerang (cockles) has gone so high.
ReplyDeleteOne of my guesses is that Malaysians who can afford signature iced lattes are now buying the "poor man's food", especially fish for health reasons, hence it has become a rich man's food.
When I went on a tour of the Stathuys in Malacca, the tour guide showed us the bakery and told us that the bakery used to bake white bread which the wealthier people ate, as well as coarser brown bread which the poorer people ate.
Then they noticed that the poorer people were healthier and lived longer,so the wealthier people began to eat brown bread.
This brought back memories of my childhood when I was told something like "brown bread is no good" or something to that effect, as if it was something to avoid like the plague.
Well today, there is a big market for wholemeal bread and some people are willing to pay premium prices like RM14.50 for a loaf of German sourdough bread, which by the way is brown.
Same thing with unpolished brown rice - a "poor man's food" which has now become a rich man's food, at least amongst those who can acquire a taste for it.
However, that is just my guess.
On the other hand, there is a need to look into other material reasons for the high cost of ikan kembong and kerang, including the efficiency of Malaysia's fishermen, the number of fishermen, trawler fishing, availability of fish stock, the middlemen, the supply chain, cost of fuel for fishing boats and so forth.
Ktemoc, you wrote:-
ReplyDelete"I have always been and still am a DAP supporter but nonetheless fake news such as what I have written above, even if disadvantageous to BN, still repulse me - it's blatantly dishonest and I can't stand that"
I have never voted BN all my life and have voted opposition, including DAP and PKR at parliamentary and state levels except for GE13 when I voted independent in protest at what I regarded as the below-my-expectations performance of the Pakatan government in Selangor.
However, like you, I get pissed off with the dishonesty, exaggeration or distortion of facts or outright stupidity or laziness to verify facts of Pakatan supporters, especially on social media.
For instance, the claim by Anwar and PKR following the 2008 elections that 30 to 40 BN MPs would jump ship to Pakatan by 16th September 2008, when not one jumped ship, either before, on the day itself or after 16th September 2008.
This is an politically idiotic gambit akin to the "Boy who cried wolf" since Anwar and the PKR loses credibility each time it raises expectations amongst its supporters only for them to be disappointed when their expectations are dashed.
Some months back, I got a message on a WhatsApp group I was on which read something like this sent by a well-meaning pro-Pakatoon member:-
"Ministry of Interior Regulation
From tomorrow onwards there are new communication regulations.
All calls are recorded
All phone call recordings saved
Whatsapp is monitored
Twitter is monitored
Facebook is monitored
All social media and forums are monitored
Inform those who do not know.
Your devices are connected to ministry systems.
Take care not to send unnecessary messages.
Inform your children about this and to take care."
That rang a bell right away, since Malaysia does not have a "Ministry of Interior" and the ministries which deal with online content and communications are the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Communications and Multimedia.
I did a Google search and found articles where the Ministry of Interior Ghana denied the rumour/fake news circulating via WhatsApp.
http://www.mint.gov.gh/for-immediate-release-re-new-communication-regulations-circulating-on-social-media/
Any idiot can use WhatsApp, including business people who have a PC but do not even know how to browse the Web or check their business e-mail and it is such people who believe anything forwarded to them via WhatsApp or other forms of social media.
That small WhatsApp group I was on is mostly pro-Pakatan and they are all well educated, tech-savvy (presumably most), English-literate, professional urbanites and they forward fake news like this.
This hoax has been circulating in India as well.
http://www.thenewsminute.com/article/whatsapp-hoax-there-isnt-ministry-interior-regulation-and-its-not-tapping-your-calls-63283
Check4Spam exposes this:-
https://check4spam.com/internet-rumours/ministry-interior-new-communication-regulations-spam/
Now you understand why I call myself "IT.Scheiss".
The Internet encourages cut and paste, and makes it only too easy to forward or repeat stuff without thinking or questioning the details.
A Hindu once told me way back in the 1980s that computers electronic calculators are part of the Age of Kali, since they discourage humans from using their brain.
Anwar's 916 was typical of his flamboyant bullshit, so much so that even a person (lawyer) like Hannah Yeoh was completely convinced of Anwar's correctness. She stupidly wrote a letter to Malaysiakini defending the correctness of Anwar's 916. I was so sad that a supposedly clever young DAP woman could be beguiled by sheer bullshit that I called her the "mathematically challenged" (wakakaka) where she moronically believed BN's 140 was less than Pakatan's 82
DeleteSome people call this "eating your own dog food".
DeleteI have been writing about the IT industry for about 23 years now and I too have been susceptible to "eating the dog food" of the milieu I am immersed in, especially in terms of what constitutes "high-technology" or "technology" itself.
On day, I covered an exhibition of French technologies offered to Malaysia, where most of the high-technology being offered was in areas such as automotive, vocational training in non-information technologies and so forth, with smartcard technology being the only information technology exhibited and that shocked me back to the reality of what I knew, that high-technology exists in all industries, such as high-tech agriculture, high-tech building materials, high-tech building techniques, high-tech medicine, high-tech petroleum, high-tech chemistry, biotechnology, nanotechnology and so many more; and not just high-tech information, communications and multimedia.
I realised that by my being immersed in writing about just one form of high-tech, that I had put my awareness of other forms of high-technology into the deep recesses of my mind.
Not only Hanny Yeoh but other lawyers I personally know are only lawyers in court but morph into lawyers burok once in in the teh tarik shop or bar.
DeleteTo add, the Internet and social media would result in people believing that the that "the lamp post collided with the car".
ReplyDeleteLet us look at reports about the Alnic MC ramming into the USS John McCain last month.
On 20 August 2017, the New York Times reported:-
"BANGKOK — Ten Navy sailors were missing and five were injured on Monday after a United States destroyer collided with an oil tanker...."
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/20/world/asia/uss-john-mccain-collision-merchant-ship.html
Look at the hole in the port side of the USS John McCain and also the small "v" shaped dent above it.
On 21 August 2017, Channel News Asia reported:-
"Oil tanker hit by USS John S McCain laden with fuel oil; no spill"
Read more at http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/oil-tanker-hit-by-uss-john-s-mccain-laden-with-fuel-oil-no-spill-9141962
However, the above Channel News Asia article also has a file photo of the other ship - the Alnic MC and notice the upper part of the bulbous bow protruding forward from the lower part of its bow, with most of this bulbous bow below the waterline. This hydrodynamic bulb is a marine engineering feature which has been found to reduces water resistance as the ship moves forward at speed and hence saves fuel.
Does the curvature of the hole in the port side of the USS John McCain in the photo carried by the NYT and the "v" shaped dent not tell anybody with half a brain that it was the Alnic MC which rammed into the port side of the USS John McCain?
Many other media have just copied and pasted parrot fashion that the "USS John McCain collided with the Alnic MC" despite photographic evidence to the contrary.
I fear for the future of the young generation, who go around with faces buried in their smartphone screens.
I once asked Najib when he was Education Minister, whether smart schools will produce a generation of idiots by the Year 2020 and he said "no".
Well, 2020 is less than three years away, so looking around at reality - go figure who will be right - Najib or IT.Scheiss.
u r one tat twist n spin, the article clearly said fresh food not tax, however the increase could be due to indirect causal like petrol, ringgit, gst on transport etc, that lead to a surge in price, though the main reason could be supply side which the writer purposely not mentioned or overlook due to insufficient information.
ReplyDeletegenerally prices of most goods increase due to various reason after gst is a fact, the detail might need further research n verification, but definitely is not how u put it, raw food no tax hence no increase, dun bs la, ask yr mum in penang, unless lge from the chinese indian dap subsidise the pg chinese n indian wakaka.
price increases in fresh seafood such as kembung and kerang could be due to many factors such as market forces (supply & demand), fishmongers' overhead etc but the journalist should NOT write into her story that it's due to GST - that's fake news, probably spread by your side as you people are so fake, wakakaka (didn't your side said if she gets elected there'll be no GST)
Delete“Despite this, traders like Chin and Siau said the zero-rating has had little effect in keeping prices low because the GST applies to transportation charges, while petrol prices have generally been on the rise in the past year.”
Deletethe writer oso wrote the above, u r one that quote out of context and selectively ie fake. price of goods generally goes up after gst include fresh food, u r the only one tell us no increase using theory as justification, so fake la u.
your party is full of troublemakers like you
Delete"Very Fake News on Kembung-Kerang?"
ReplyDeleteSimilary, perhaps it is fake journalism too from SR/CRB on Hadi had received RM90.0 million of 1MDB money by virtue that CRB had failed to appear in the London Court to defend SR allegation: Ipso facto Hadi did not receive any dedak.
KTemoc,
ReplyDelete"but the journalist should NOT write into her story that it's due to GST..."
I've read through the article and the journalist wrote that fish prices rose "after the introduction of GST", which does not say that fresh fish is subject to GST but implies that the price rose following the introduction of GST due to other factors which the journalist did not elaborate on.
So either the journalist did a shoddy job at reporting, like those I mentioned who simply repeated that the USS John McCain collided with the Alnic MC, when photos of the damage to the USS John McCain and of the Alnic MC clearly show that the Alnic MC rammed into the side of the USS John McCain.
Or, the journalist wrote the article as such that less vigilant readers would get the impression that the price of fish rose due to it being subject to GST, which it is not.
she wrote "“Before GST, cockles cost about RM4 per kilo. Now it’s about RM10. So, I buy half a kilo. "
Deleteand " Prior to the GST, kembung or Indian mackerel, fetched around RM8 per kilo at the market."
If she was not imputing GST causes those price increases then I don't know what she meant or my command of English is worse than I had imagined?
yr eng is very good, thats y ck call u a wordsmith, one think ck get it wrong is u r in fact better than rpk. many of rpk writes is obviously lie, while yrs is subtle，so u r a better liar, u r the sifu
Deleteoh oh oh be careful you might start to believe in me, wakakaka
DeleteDon't ever think that zero rated goods are not affected by implementation of GST. All goods and services have an element of transportation cost and transportation charges are subjected to GST.
ReplyDeleteGST also increases the cost of doing business bearing in mind utilities , services , rental etc. are all 'gsted' in one way or another. Obviously all these extra cost will be passed to the consumers who purchased the fish and cockle .
Remember too GST imputed is 6 % at every level of transactions from the producer to the ultimate consumer, hence after all the 'gsting' the effective GSt rate will not only be 6 % but higher.
GST is only at the stipulated percentage ( be that 10% in Oz or 6% in Malaysia) from go to Z. There is no accumulative GST-ing
Delete