Three days ago, I received a visit from the managers of Gardenia bread. Gardenia bakes their breads in several factories in Selangor and distributes them nationwide from Selangor.
They came to meet me to express their concern to me over some untruths about Gardenia which are being spread via SMS, forwarded email and Facebook in recent weeks, and continue to be spread.
There are various permutations of these messages but in a nut shell, the message alleges that Gardenia is linked to Barisan Nasional, UMNO and Bernas which are anti-Chinese, and thus Chinese Malaysians are urged to boycott Gardenia and purchase another brand of bread instead.
I too received such an SMS on that day. The SMS was written in Chinese. I find this SMS to be extremely racist and not acceptable.
DAP and I have been very critical of the use of the race-based angle in all our years of political struggle. I condemn the use of the race-based angle in attacking Gardenia.
I also advise members of the public to be more careful with any information received via forwarded SMS/email and not forward information without verifying the information first.
Here is the press statement by Gardenia which further clarifies the issue.
the rumour has been spreading for a while, i chose the other “brand” not because of race or the linkage stipulated, but i simply prefer the taste and texture of the other “brand”
I am sorry, but I cannot read Chinese. What does the press statement from Gardenia say?
At the end of the day, while I agree with you that it is not right for us to boycott any business from a race angle, I don’t see anything wrong with boycotting any business whose ownership or practices I disagree with. This is the power of the consumer, and this is my choice.
Agreed… 🙂
Gardenia Bread management told me Bernas only hold 30% of the shares in Gardenia, Bernas never instructed Gardenia management not to buy flour from Robert Kuok’s company. Gardenia only buys flour from company that offers reasonable rate that the time they purchase, they never take instruction from Bernas. The reason I am wiling to defend Gardenia is because all the sms and FB messages are not true.
Thank you YB for the clarification.
Boycotting Gardenia is wrong, from the moral point of view. A boycott means we are no better than Umno racists and bigots who are not averse to boycotting to prove their superiority. We wont be able to look our fellow-Malaysians in the eye if we resort to Umno’s Nazi tactics of divide and rule.
FYI, I have also switched to the other brand recently, simply because it is much cheaper than gardenia..
Instead of complaining to you, gardenia should see if they could give a more competitive pricing
it’s sad to learn that the rift between cultures, races and religion in this country becomes even greater after half-century out of the colonial rules… all b’coz of gr***
The boycott happen because:
– sugar price increase. Sugar business was bought and floated to enrich shareholders.
– bread price increase after sugar price increase.
– quality of bread drop
– consumers can live without bread to compensate the price increase of other food item
I notice fat in Massimo is very high.. at least more than 60% compared to Gardenia… no wonder it’s so soft. Maybe we can suggest this to Gardenia. hehe.
I agree that if the claims are not substantiated, we should not take rumours based on face value.
But i too, have switched brands. Purely on the grounds that it is even cheaper than Gardenia or High 5’s Sandwich loaf. If the new brand could give us Wheat Germ Bread at lower costs than the established one’s white bread and still make a profit, shouldn’t it be high time for them to review their pricing to win back the public?. By the way, the new brand’s bread also taste good.
Over to you, Gardenia/High 5
We need not apologize as the govt shamelessly and strongly promotes racism.
Dear Teresa,
I understand your reason from the race based angle, however, this does not bother the public.
Racism is rifed because it is started by BN and continuously used by BN to cause hatred amongst the races. Fortunately, a big percentage of the public is matured enough not to fall for the trap.
The minority Chinese are being constantly under attack and soon there will be no place for them to stand on. Therefore, we definitely will not support the thieves who robbed the rakyat and making them suffer by increasing prices of goods and levying taxes. It is people’s power to condemn profiteering.