TICKETS have been sold out for the concert of British rock band Coldplay at the Bukit Jalil National Stadium on November 22.
Indeed, it is a great marketing success story.
But beneath this good sales lurks an ugly truth – scalpers are said to have hoarded tickets and are reselling them at heart-stopping, exorbitant prices ranging from 300% to 500% profit margins.
Yes, this is not something new. It has always been so and yet we are unable to purge this profiteering, sinful culture from our midst.
Not only do we see this happening for high-demand concerts but we also see this hoarding, scalping, profiteering culture rears its ugly head when it comes to a whole lot of other goods and services.
Government-subsidised essential goods are hoarded and resold at higher prices.
Even genuine fire sales of goods are bought in bulk, stored away and later distributed in smaller townships to be sold at ridiculously higher prices.
At the end of the day, the citizenry suffers while traders and business circles laugh all the way to the bank.
This seemingly regarded as “smart business strategy” is plain robbery. It must stop. And we do not need space science to end this dirty culture. Stringent enforcement and speedy punishment should be very effective.
Such scalper and profiteering cultures have also become a way of doing business for mega-buck projects. The rent-seeking political system has only helped this robbery culture to flourish.
Despite so much overdosed preaching and ever-increasing emphasis with huge, national budget allocations for the promotion of religions in the country the scalper culture continues to grow.
The truth is profiteering at all costs has become the Malaysian way of doing business. Period.
From the sole trader to the mega business operator, we see this ugly phenomenon at work.
Will the unity government armed with its Malaysia Madani armour be able to clean up and free the nation of this scalper culture?
Will Malaysians as discerning consumers ever be able to harness and use the power of consumerism to deal a death blow to all these unhealthy trends of profiteering that have become our norm?
Do we ever realise that we certainly cannot rebuild this nation’s future for as long as we remain deeply entrenched in this culture of scalping, profiteering, hoarding and rent-seeking?
Or shall we as a nation remain resigned to believing (as was once told by a politician) that corruption is everywhere and so we might as well live with it? – The Vibes, May 20, 2023
J. D. Lovrenciear read The Vibes
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