as almost everybody in this nation with even a shred of awareness knows by now, Umno/BN, behind its pretence of promoting and protecting Malay rights, religious beliefs and prosperity, has been misleading, suppressing and shamelessly ripping-off the Malaysian people, Malay and non-Malay alike, for decades.

Defective ‘growing-up’ milk powder

     And perhaps most reprehensible, at least in the long-term, is this kleptocratic regime’s depriving millions of young Malaysians of the truly excellent and enlightened education they need and deserve, while sending its own pampered offspring overseas or, in flagrant breach of its own rules, to local international schools.

And now, apparently no longer content with educationally and otherwise victimising children and adolescents, now Umno/BN has been cheating toddlers and babes in arms by selling sub-standard milk powder to their unsuspecting parents through its lavishly publicly-funded chain of ‘discount’ stores known as Kedai Rakyat 1Malaysia, or KR1M.

Investigations by Tony Pua (left) and other diligent opposition politicians have revealed that the now-discontinued 1Malaysia ‘growing-up’ milk powder previously sold for months in KR1M outlets contained no trace whatever of 15 essential nutrients, vitamins and trace elements, and provided a mere 4.5 percent of the calcium and just 7.4 percent of the iron that the relevant food regulations deem necessary for healthy growth and development of young bodies and minds.

And arguably even more disgraceful was that this same product for babies and toddlers was found to contain many times the maximum permitted level of Vitamin A, which in excess can lead to symptoms including liver dysfunction, reduced bone mineral density, skin discolouration and hair loss.

Yet, when faced with these shocking revelations, the Health Minister Liow Tiong Lai, the same Lai who lied when he denied that police fired water cannons and teargas grenades into the grounds of a hospital during the Bersih 2.0 rally earlier this year, rather than apologising or better yet resigning, attacked Tony Pua for revealing the truth to the previously unsuspecting public.

In fact, Lai had the hide to accuse Pua of “trying to politicise the matter”.

Fraudulent concept

Which was hypocritical in the extreme in light of the plainly evident reality that the entire KR1M operation is just another cheap and shabby attempt by Najib Razak and his Umno/BN colleagues and cronies to use their fraudulent ‘1Malaysia’ concept to politicise every possible aspect of society.