In his visit to the longhouse community this morning, Tiong, who is also the chairman of BN Backbenchers’ Club, said he had been told that when these folks bought the subsidised rice in Tatau, they were asked to buy first a packet of more expensive rice costing RM24.

“This is absurd. This is definitely not what the policy of 1Malaysia is all about. I want the Ministry of Domestic Trade, Cooperative and Consumerism to investigate this allegation.”

Tiong said the rice was subsidised and no condition should be attached to it for the sake of the people.

He said if this had happened to the folks in his constituency, he would apologise for it and he wanted to see action taken against the unscrupulous traders.

The Bintulu MP asked, “Where has the subsidy gone to? What standard we are fixing for the people in such a matter, and who made this regulation?”

He further asked whether the enforcement officers knew of this allegation.

Tiong called on the traders to stop such a double-standard practice.

He assured he would go after this matter.

On another complaint, Tiong said the longhouse folks said the plantations in Tatau preferred hiring foreign workers than the locals.

“If this allegation is true, many locals will lose their jobs. The folks said the plantation personnel told them that hiring locals were expensive.

“The plantation supervisors also allegedly said hiring foreigners were cheaper and that they would not need to pay foreigners monthly.”

Tiong said he would bring this matter to the Ministry of Human Resources. 

“I shall also recommend that the operation licences of these plantations be revoked because what is the point of giving them the licences when the locals are losing more jobs?”