Price Hike again!!

I saw the news on the price of rice, flour even mee....everything will go up. What the @#$%?? Let us look at this in a simple way...let's talk about rice first..Malaysia is not a nett importer country for rice, so we do produce our own rice towards certain extent. According to NST, we do have enough supply for rice until September, from import and locally produced. This is due to the Rice Stockpile Policy. We only import up to 30% of the total rice stock. 30%! So why the price hike? If it's due to the imports, then we should be more strict in regulating the imports. We need to give priority to our local agri product than the imports. Who'll get the benefit from the increase imported rice price? Importers. Will the gain in profit from the sale of imported rice benefited the rakyat? NO. We will suffer, the big importer companies will get the profit, or to be nice to them, marginal or no impact from the higher rice market price worldwide by increasing their margins and asking us, the consumer to absorb 100% of the price hike by passing the burden to pay the extras to us. Average Abu (well Joe Blogg does not really sound local isn't it?) out there will need to fork out more every month to feed his family. Does this do justice to us?
Mind you, if we did not control the trivial issue of rising cost of life from now, then just imagine the worst at the end of the tunnel. Definitely Abu will someday ask for a payrise as his current pay can't really get him and his family through the month. That's the vicious cycle we need to prevent from rolling fast like the wheel of F1 car.
Mind you the government did mentioned that the price of Super Spesial Tempatan 15% (SST) will not rise, but what is the percentage of national consumption for the SST? 10-30%. Trust me, next time you go to kedai mamak, and order an extra plate of rice, you'll be charged more than usual. "Harga beras naik la boss", that's the expected answer from the mamak. The total bill for your standard meal will cost you more, isn't it? If food industry uses SST, the consumption rate won't be 15%, right? Just do simple maths, drive through your neighbourhood area, do a quick survey on number of food stalls, restaurants, food joints etc2. Just come up with a gross figure of people who order rice variants, from nasi goreng, nasi campur, etc2, & you'll definitely know that those 15% does not come from the food industry. Think for yourself....
We need more radical policy to nurture and cultivate our local agri industry. We should at least be self-sufficient in certain product, while maintaining good balance between importing and exporting our own agri products. Having read Dr Amin Mahir Abdullah, the Agri-business and Management Policy laboratory head for UPMs Agriculture and food Policy Research Institute (IKDPM) comments on the newly developed strain, MRQ74 or “Mas Wangi” in 2005 which is on par with the Thai fragrant rice, is considered "not being able to compete in the market" by our local market or by other authority is very sickening and heart wrenching. To change market perspective on local products is tough, but if the regulation is there to highlight our product more in the market rather than the imports, by simple economic law we can deduced that we will definitely see an increased in sales for local products. Saturate the market, numb the customer with ads or increased the visibility factor on the local products, make it mandatory for hypermarkets to display it, educate them, do whatever you like under the sun to increase the sale, then one day we will see 'Mas Wangi' as something we will buy over the imports. Don't you think?