ALOR STAR: Kedah Pas has issued an ultimatum to those who have accused the party of being culpable for the current shortage of locally-produced white rice in the market, demanding that they retract their accusations or face legal action.
Pas commissioner Datuk Ahmad Yahaya categorically denied the allegations, stating that the party had never been involved in or orchestrated rice hoarding activities.
"Kedah Pas is of the view that this issue has been addressed by the Kedah Menteri Besar on Wednesday. Any issues pertaining to rice supply is under the purview of the Agriculture and Food Security Ministry.
"Kedah Pas has never got involved or given any order to any party to carry out (rice) hoarding activity to the extent impacting the nation's food security.
"In fact, Kedah Pas supports Datuk Seri Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor's firm and vocal stand in combating the padi cartel which has rooted deep in the padi and rice supply chain today," he said in a statement today.
Therefore, Ahmad questioned whether those disseminating the falsehoods were attempting to divert public attention away from Agriculture and Food Security Minister Datuk Seri Muhamad Sabu's failure in handling the rice supply issue.
"Kedah Pas is giving 24 hours to any party which has spread lies on the involvement of Kedah Pas in this issue.
"Should they fail to apologise and to withdraw the allegation, just wait, legal action will be taken," he said in a statement today.
The ultimatum by Kedah Pas came two days after Sanusi issued an ultimatum to those who accused the state leaders or state government-linked company of being responsible for the current shortage of the locally produced white rice.
Sanusi was reported as saying that he would instruct lawyers to take legal action against those who had been spreading false news implicating the state administration over the rice supply crisis.
He was also reported to have cautioned critics against making the state the scapegoat for the current white rice supply crisis, as the Agriculture and Food Security Ministry is responsible for the issue.
Sanusi had claimed that there was a tendency to pin the blame on the locally produced white rice supply crisis on the state government since Kedah is the nation's biggest rice supplier.
He had also reiterated his calls for the relevant authorities to investigate claims on the involvement of the cartel in the rice supply chain behind the shortage of the staple food.
On Wednesday, a company owner was slapped with three charges for making false statements in 2017 totalling RM22.7 million for non-existence supplies of rice products to Kedah Agro Holding Bhd (KAHB).
Yesterday, it was reported that the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) is investigating the misappropriation of padi subsidies to farmers by syndicates at rice mills.
It was reported that according to sources, the syndicates would forge receipts of padi purchases at the mills, involving the farmer, the mill and a Padi Beras Nasional Bhd (Bernas) representative.
The sources claimed that the scam is being pulled to claim the RM500 subsidy for every one metric tonne of the grain, paid by the government to farmers through Bernas.
It was reported that MACC also detected cases of mills mixing local rice into bags of imported rice after raiding three raiding three mills in Kedah.