Malay rights NGO Perkasa president Ibrahim Ali today urged the government to start acting on middlemen and cartels in the rubber industry.

Ibrahim claimed they were causing rubber prices to fall, ultimately affecting Malay rubber tappers.

 

"The price of rubber has fallen because the industry has, for decades, been controlled by cartels such as Lee Rubber, Lam Seng, and others.

"It is understood that their pact has caused prices to fall, resulting in small rubber tappers not getting a fair price," he said in a statement today.

 

Ibrahim said the rubber companies were selling rubber at a much higher price to foreign companies, but this is not reflected in prices quoted to rubber tappers and rubber estate owners.

 

"These capitalists have reaped millions of ringgit from the sweat of the small farmers," he asserted.

 

Ibrahim ( left ) urged the government to set a floor price of RM3.50 per kilogramme for rubber to be given to small farmers.

 

Ibrahim also warned that the small farmers were getting increasingly angry with the government for its inaction in this matter, and said that there are "many parties" waiting to "exploit" the situation.

 

"When small farmers feel they are being discriminated, it can be termed as a planned effort to make people from outside the cities start hating the government," he declared.