I WAS surprised by the government’s intention to reduce the current retail price of coarse sugar in order to lower the cost of living in Malaysia. The price of sugar in Singapore, Indonesia and Vietnam is RM4.65, RM3.58 and RM4.41 per kg respectively. At RM2.95 per kg, the sugar price in Malaysia is the cheapest in Asia.
Malaysia has the highest rate of diabetes in Asia and one of the highest in the world. Currently, there are about 2.5 million Malaysian adults who are diabetic and almost half of these unfortunate sufferers do not know how they contracted this chronic ailment. Considering the adverse health effects of consuming too much sugar in our diet, are we helping Malaysians to lead a better life by lowering the price of sugar?