Sabah Progressive Party (Sapp) leader Yong Teck Lee has hit out at what he described as the discrimination against Sabah and Sarawak in the latest revision of rice subsidies by the federal authorities.

padi fields 230508 01 The former chief minister said today that when he first read the news of the new subsidy rate for Super Tempatan 15 percent (ST 15) rice and subsidies for rice production on Thursday, he had thought that perhaps it was a misreporting.

“I had given the BN government the benefit of the doubt that they could not be so crude and insensitive to the needs of Sabah and Sarawak that they would be so glaringly discriminating against the two states,” he said in a statement to Malaysiakini.

But after checking with official sources, he realised that the news reports were indeed accurate, he said, adding that “Malaysians in Sabah and Sarawak again have been given a raw deal in the revision of rice subsidies”.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Agro-based Industry had announced a new lower subsidy rate for ST 15 rice although the new rate was not revealed.

Lack of funds at Agriculture Ministry

'Further, the Rice Production Subsidy Programme for millers in Sabah and Sarawak is now RM600 per ton whereas for Peninsula Malaysia it is RM750 per ton.

yong teck lee Yong said the value of these two subsidies is a meagre RM8.4 million for Sarawak, RM12.9 million for Sabah, and a whopping RM360 m for Peninsular Malaysia.

“This RM360 million is 30 times that of the value of subsidy for Sabah and 40 times that of Sarawak. It is no wonder that Sabah’s agriculture minister last year lamented that his ministry could not do much for Sabah’s rice production due to the lack of funds.”

He added that the new rates of subsidies are “an insult to those Malaysians who have to eat to live in Sabah and Sarawak”.

rice paddy padi beras sacks Already, for more than a decade until last June, Malaysians in Sabah had to pay RM200 million extra per year to rice monopoly Bernas Corporation for the rice which is generally known to be of lower quality.

“Why should we pay more for lower quality rice? And why should Bernas be given the monopoly to import and export rice?’ These are the two questions that the authorities have refused to answer, hoping that the issue will go away like a bad dream,” said the Sapp chief.

The party called for definite actions to be taken by the BN leaders in both the state and federal governments to remove the socio-economic imbalances that have stifled the progress of Sabah and caused unnecessary hardship to the people.