LETTERS: Menu Rahmah, which aims to help the B40 group, has more than 15,000 restaurants joining the programme to offer affordable meals at RM5.
The initiative is a collective effort. Meals include chicken rice, rojak, nasi paprik, roti john and fried kuey teow.
Kudos to Mydin, the Malaysian Indian Restaurant Owners Association, the Malaysian Muslim Restaurant Owners Association, the Malaysian Tom Yam Restaurant Owners Association, the Malaysia Singapore Coffee Shop Proprietors' General Association, the Bumiputra Retailers Organisation, the Malaysia Retail Chain Association and the Malaysia Retailers Association.
The pricing is set after considering the prices of raw materials and, of course, reduced profit margins. This is an act of charity and may God bless those involved.
On social media, some eateries that are not involved in the programme have also reduced their prices.
A Twitter user named @Injang_Nation noticed that there was a price-drop from around RM8 to RM9 to below RM7.
The small businesses have come up with this "quick fix" to help alleviate the burden of the B40 and society in general.
I wonder when the big businesses, which have enjoyed many incentives from the government, will do their part.
Worse, monopolistic actions and cartels that created "demand-pull" inflation have put a strain on consumers at large.
Research has found that when suppliers of goods and services are required to engage in corrupt practices, this increases the cost of doing business, which are passed on to the consumers.
It is sad that there is a common perception that corruption is "standard operating procedure" in doing business in Malaysia.
The stability and prosperity of a nation are dependent on the alleviation of problems faced by many.
Having said that, the principles in the Menu Rahmah initiative could be easily understood by any layperson and must be a new subject in economics to better explain and study the issue of price elasticity.
SALEH MOHAMMED
Kuala Lumpur
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times