Law On Rice Manipulation Useless If Enforcement Weak Says Syed Hussin

---

 
National Action Council on Cost of Living’s food cluster committee head Syed Abu Hussin Hafiz Syed Abdul Fasal previously poured cold water on a proposal aimed at resolving the shortage of local white rice. (Bernama pic)PETALING JAYA: Lax enforcement would render laws criminalising the mixing of local and imported white rice futile, says Syed Abu Hussin Hafiz Syed Abdul Fasal

The Bukit Gantang MP, who heads the National Action Council on Cost of Living’s (Naccol) food cluster committee, said while he welcomed criminalising such unscrupulous practices, there is a need to first improve enforcement.
“Laws without proper enforcement won’t be of any use,” he told FMT.
“As it is, people are lamenting the lack of enforcement when it comes to the manipulation of the white rice supply.”
Syed Hussin was commenting on a proposal by PKR’s Hassan Karim who called for the mixing of local and imported rice to be made a criminal offence to curb such practices.
Hassan claimed in the Dewan Rakyat recently that some parties were mixing local and imported rice to reap profits, resulting in consumers paying a lot more for the commodity.
The Pasir Gudang MP said the Control of Padi and Rice Act should be amended to criminalise such practices.
However, Hassan admitted that there would be some difficulty in telling local and imported rice apart, and suggested that the burden of proof must be looked into by the Attorney-General’s Chambers.
Syed Hussin said the fact that Hassan wants the law to have more bite shows that he is aware there is no legislation which could effectively stamp out such practices.
When asked about the shortage of local white rice last month, Syed Hussin said that local white rice has been “disappearing” from the domestic market because imported white rice is more expensive compared with the ceiling price set for local white rice.
Meanwhile, agriculture and food security minister Mohamad Sabu was reported to have said last month that the Control of Padi and Rice Act 1994 did not explicitly prohibit mixing rice of different grades.
He said this when revealing that the ministry was conducting a study on a proposal to allow the sale of mixed-grade rice in the local market. - FMT

---