In April, thousands of Malaysians gathered in Kedah to demand Putrajaya’s intervention over declining prices of rubber. But seven months on, the chants of “reformasi” at the Baling 2.0 gathering appear to have made little impression.
Despite calling for Putrajaya to set the floor price of rubber scrap to RM4 per kg, the situation has since worsened for the nearly half a million rubber tappers and smallholders in the country.
Many are now struggling with the commodity’s lowest price drop in years, at about RM1.60 per kg compared to RM2.30 in April, when the gathering, themed “Himpunan Derita Rakyat: Baling 2.0” was held in Kupang.
Kedah opposition leader Datuk Amiruddin Hamzah, who organised the gathering, told The Malaysian Insider that these days, most rubber tappers could barely afford to purchase enough rice to eat.
“At RM1.60 per kg, they are only getting 80 sen when you factor in the costs to hire workers. Now, with the rainy season, the rubber tappers are not even able to work sometimes.
“Here, in Kedah, we hear cases of people forced to buy rice by the kilogramme, instead of buying bags of rice. The smallest bag of rice sold on the shelves is about 5kg – they can’t even afford that,” said Amiruddin.
However, their demands for Putrajaya’s intervention had “fallen on deaf ears”, Amiruddin said, despite a memorandum sent to the Malaysia Rubber Board (MRB) and efforts by Pakatan Rakyat lawmakers to argue their case in Parliament.
“Our lawmakers in charge of this issue have spoken up, but to no avail. The people’s voice is worthless unless it’s right before the general elections, I guess,” said the PAS Anak Bukit state assemblyman.
“The federal government says it cannot afford to do more, due to the burden of the economy, but they seem to have forgotten that the hardest hit during times of economic difficulty will always be the working class – the rubber tappers and the smallholders.”
Amiruddin said the only progress made was Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s announcement in the 2015 Budget that the MRB would allocate RM100 million to implement a regulatory price mechanism at the farm level to protect smallholders from losses incurred should the world market price fall below a minimum fixed price.
MRB would also provide soft loans of RM6.4 million as working capital to 64 smallholder cooperatives to purchase rubber directly from 442,000 rubber smallholders nationwide, stated the Budget.
“But all the things we demanded in the memorandum have gone nowhere,” said Amiruddin.
Besides raising the floor price for rubber, they had demanded Putrajaya to subsidise fertiliser for rubber trees for 25 years and the replanting of rubber trees; scrap the tax on rubber; and ensure manufacturing cost was not solely paid by rubber tappers and smallholders, but shared between them and the manufacturer.
“The people, like rubber tappers and smallholders, are already facing rising living costs with the prices of goods becoming gradually more expensive,” Amiruddin had said when reading out the declaration of demands during the gathering in April.
The declaration was endorsed by 32 groups, including Kedah PAS, national PAS Youth, PKR, DAP, rubber tappers, farmers, and various non-governmental organisations like Suara Anak Kampung.
Amirudin told The Malaysian Insider that the situation for rubber tappers had gone progressively worse since that day when he read the declaration.
But he said that the locals had not lost hope and had organised a small demonstration in Lenggong, Perak, to demand that the prices of rubber be raised in light of increased living costs and the looming goods and services tax.
“However, there’s only so much we can do. In the end, the power is in the federal government to help,” said Amiruddin.
On Friday, The Malaysian Insider had reported that many rubber tappers were only able to bring home a meagre sum of between RM500 and RM600 a month, compared to RM1,500 previously – roughly a 66% drop in income since early this year.
Those interviewed said they were living from hand to mouth and forced to find other sources of income following the drastic drop in the price of the commodity.
Zulkifli Husin, 61, the owner of a rubber plantation in Kampung Peradong, Jelebu, in Negri Sembilan, had said he could not imagine his family facing the deciduous season next year, between February and March, when trees shed their leaves and are unable to produce much latex.
“Last time, I could save some money for my children’s needs, now to put away even RM1 is not easy,” said Zulkifli.
Plantation worker, Mohd Shamsul Hashim, 32, said tapping could not sustain his family as he has five small children, between the ages of 3 and 12. He said he had to take on a despatch rider’s job on a part-time basis to make ends meet.
Noraznim Nordin, 38, a licensed rubber wholesaler described the drop as the worst in four years.
Malaysia remains the world’s second-largest producer of rubber and palm oil, with the 25% and 16% drop in both commodities, respectively, having a severe impact on revenue.
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Tuesday that the negative effects of plummeting oil commodity prices have had a severe impact on Malaysia’s growth prospects and government revenue.
It said that heavy reliance on the export of oil, palm oil and rubber for the nation’s revenue means that the decline in global prices for these commodities will hit Malaysia the hardest.