UMNO Youth to help in controlling price rise

UMNO Youth Head, Khairy Jamaluddin has called on all UMNO Youth members nationwide to get down on the ground to help in efforts to control the rising prices of goods. Khairy said the price hike was not due to the increase in petrol price as claimed by the opposition but also affected by several other factors including the weather which resulted in a drop in supply as well as the attitude of wholesalers who wanted to make excessive profits. "Thus every (UMNO) Youth member must approach the people and tell them what is actually happening so that they will not be influenced by instigations by the opposition," he said. Khairy, who is also the Youth and Sports Minister, said this in his speech when addressing UMNO Youth branch leaders from throughout Perlis at the Arau Civics Hall, near here on Monday night. Earlier, he visited the Jejawi night market together with the Perlis UMNO Youth leadership to observe the prices of goods sold there. Khairy hoped that members of the movement, through the Youth Consumer Squad, would approach the people more often in facing the issue on the price hikes so that UMNO and the government would no longer be blamed for the price increases. On the struggles of UMNO Youth, he called on every member to prepare themselves to face the 14th general election (GE14) which could be more challenging compared to the GE13 because the opposition would be working harder to woo rural voters. Earlier, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Dr Shahidan Kassim, who is also chairman of the Perlis UMNO Liaison Body, wanted everyone to understand the concept of the party controlling the government and not vice versa. Also present was Perlis UMNO Youth head Syed Atief Syed Abu Bakar.