Government Screwing Up Durians As Well

.

Durian people say that today an "important" meeting is taking place between the Government and the durian growers and durian processors. People can even be liwatted over durians. This is another case of "orang yang tak tahu apa benda pun pasal niaga" getting involved in messing things up again (or getting fed with Musang King for life).

.

First of all, a little recap. As we all know, many stage bus operators in the smaller towns have stopped their services or are stoppinmg their services. They have been running at losses and they cannot survive anymore. Is that so? Is that really the case?

.

What happened to Sri Jaya Bus, Uttam Singh Bus, Yellow Bus, Patt Hup Bus, Len Seng Bus, Foh Hup Bus, Selangor Omnibus, and so on? These are well known stage bus operators who operated stage buses in Penang, Kuala Lumpur, Melaka, Tampin, Selangor and other places. But most importantly, for decades, they had been providing fairly good services to the rural people. People could go from A to B. What happened to all these bus operators? Many of them are coming to a stop.

.

The bottom line is, you can think you are being very clever, but if you mess with the market, this is what will happen - the bus services come to a stop.

.

You think you are being clever, you mess with the fish wholesalers and what happens? You make their operating costs too high. They make losses. So they will not sell fish anymore. Fish prices skyrocket, siapa jadi miskin dulu? Takkan kita nak makan babi? So the Government flip flopped. The fish wholesalers went back to work. Dont impose ridiculous rules on the fish wholesalers.

.

You mess with the Hire Purchase Act (HPA), the used car dealers' cost of doing business went up. The risk borne by the used car dealers also went up. Then what happened? The used car dealers stopped buying used cars. If people cannot sell their old cars to the used car dealers, the people will not buy a new car.

.

So new car sales died. This happened just a few months ago. Dah lupa ke. Then the Government flip flopped, amended or did not implement the HPA amendments - and things have returned back to normal.

.

And it goes on and on. Yes 30 year old school buses must get off the road. But give them enough licenses, give them cheaper buses (without AP). Only then you can put a gun to their head and say 'Change your buses'.

.

But when nothing much has been done to improve their cost structure, and you still put a gun to their head and say 'change your buses' the guy simply will not run his school bus anymore. He does not have money to change his bus according to your timetable. So he has to pull his bus off the road. Bottom line : no school buses. The school children and their parents suffer. Parents have to become chaueffeurs. Menyusahkan orang saja.

.

So the Government flip flopped. The Government postponed the requirement to change the 30 year buses. It will not make any difference. There are reasons (in this country many of them are artificial) that determine the cost of running any bus. As long as these costs are artificially high, the bus operators will operate at very thin margins. Putting more pressure on their margins will result in buses being pulled off the road. Bas tak ada. Siapa jadi miskin dulu?

.

SPAD has become quite a spud over the stage buses. They dont know what to do. (Read on - the solution is simple). SPAD is gearing itself up to oversee the RM26.0 billion MRT project instead. Not drive down to some local bus station in Tampin or Alor Gajah and sort out the problems being faced by the stage bus operators.

.

Someone came up with an idea that teachers should work 9 am - 5am. Why? Sakit hati ke tengok cikgu sekolah balik rumah pukul 1 tengah hari? I guess the cikgu threatened to vote for the Opposition. This idea too was dropped. Another flip flop.

.

To solve the stage bus operators' problem first of all it is important to just understand this part - Bas dah tak jalan dah. Boleh faham ke?

.

Let me say it slowly again - B..a..s. . . d..a..h.. . . t..a..k. . . ..j..a..l..a..n.. ...d..a..h.

.

This is the only part that you have to understand. Lepas sabsidi, lepas pegang lesen, lepas control AP bas, lepas batal lesen orang lain, lepas apa semua . . . b..a..s. . . d..a..h.. . . t..a..k. . . ..j..a..l..a..n.. ...d..a..h. Hooray, pandai sungguh kita buat kerja. Sampai bas dah takde dah.

.

Now who will provide affordable and reliable bus services to the kampong folks? Hah? Khazanah Nasional Bhd? Malaysian Airlines?

.

The solution is simple. Just break open the market. Siapa nak lesen syarikat bas - bagi saja lah. Kalau passenger ramai and someone wants to operate a 60 seater double decker London Bus between Kuala Sepetang and Teluk Intan, just give it to them. Kalau passenger sikit and someone wants to operate a 15 seater mini bus between Mantin and Tampin, give it to him. At least there will be a bus service. At least people can still go from A to B. Let the market decide what it wants. Kalau Kerajaan (dan Menteri) yang tak faham niaga masuk campur dalam perniagaan, maka akan terjadi lah Lembu Dalam Condo. By the way folks, did you all know that the Lembu Condo was one of Idris Jala's 'high impact projects'? What an impact.

.

(Kalau saya dapat soft loan RM250 Juta dengan kadar 2.5% setahun, I can do much much better than 8% return a year. Saya pun boleh beli kondo di Marine Parade (S'pore), di London atau Tokyo)

.

Coming back to the durians - there is a new opportunity opening up. Durians are processed, freeze dried and sent off to China. Its a big market in China. Its a new market. Some clever people have whispered into the Government's ear that the Government should control this "durian processing" business. The idea is that the Government will set up a durian processing plant in Batu Kurau (a monopoly) and ALL durian exporters to the China market must send their durians to this Government owned factory to process their durians. (I have no idea how this silly idea is even going to work).

.

The excuse or alasan is very simple (and very noble). There are many small scale durian farmers who do not have the capital or the expertise to process durians or freeze dry them for export to China. So the Government factory will actually do them a big favour and open up new opportunities for these small scale farmers. Wah!! Baiknya hati Kerajaan kita. So noble.

.

But why insist that ALL durian farmers MUST get their durians processed at this plant in Batu Kurau? Even durians from Johor or Negeri Sembilan must be processed at this plant in Batu Kurau.

.

Some processors already complained. To pacify them, another Government owned durian processing plant is being planned in Pahang (Jerantut ke mana). Ini tak masuk akal langsung. If the Government wants to help the small scale durian farmers - by all means go ahead, help them.

.

But why create a "durian" monopoly and insist that ALL processed durians for export to China must be processed at a Government plant? This is the part yang tak masuk akal. Just let the market decide what, where, when, who, why and how the market wants to process its durians.

.

This is where we must look for the durian di sebalik batu. Is there something else going on here?. How much are the two durian processing plants going to cost? Who is the contractor? More than a brand new Mercedes Benz S320 I am sure. Dato suka warna apa?

.

Then who is the plant operator? Talk is that the clever towkay who taught up this crazy idea (in the first place) is also quite ready to be behind operating the plant. Who in their right mind would think that the Government can operate a "durian porocessing" plant? And being a monopoly, they will charge an arm and a leg for "durian processing" services. How much? One person said 'RM600,000 for one months production costs' versus an actual market cost of RM60,000. Ini bukan durian processing brader. Ini ular sawa, nak telan durian sebiji dengan kulit dan duri sekali.

.

This will greatly increase the durian processors cost of production. Every business has its risks. If you mess with the profit margins or artificially increase their costs of production, you will kill their market.

.

But if the durians for China market is affected, who cares? If the durian processing plant eventually shuts down (like the stage buses) who cares? Bukan duit pak dia. Lagi pun, the contractor who builds the durian processing factory would have makan duit besar (possibly at way above market rates). Mercedes S Series sudah beli. So who cares? Like the stage buses that have stopped running. Who cares?

.

And do you seriously expect the durian smallholders to send their fruits to this durian processing plant in Batu Kurau? You must be joking. Does anyone even know where the hell is Batu Kurau? The durian farmer in Ulu Langat will just open a durian stall by the roadside and sell his durians. There is no way that he can afford to send his fruit to Batu Kurau or Jerantut to be processed for export to China.

.

This whole idea is just an insane Government monopoly to squeeze some bigger boys who are involved in this business. It will just screw things up again. Like the buses, the fish, the used cars market and the fuel subsidy. Now its the turn of the durians.

.