I was appalled to read the recent expose on the latest example of crony capitalism in Malaysia involving the award of an monopoly concession to label all medicines and drugs before they can be sold in Malaysia.

There was no open, competitive bidding for this concession, no terms of reference, nothing. The company that received the concession, Mediharta Sdn Bhd , is partly-owned by Dr Mahathir Mohamad's sister-in-law, Saleha Mohamed Ali.

The rationale for the concession? These hologram drug labels will allegedly prevent counterfeit medicines from reaching our shores. But the Western pharmaceutical companies that produce these medicines and who should be cheering such a move are actually criticising it because:

a. the incidence of fake medicine is small in Malaysia and limited to traditional herbal medicines, which is not their concern;

b. the holograms are easily copied anyway and

c. it adds an extra layer of costs with no benefits to the consumer

This issue is not the same as the pirated software (CDs, VCD and DVDs) problem in Malaysia which is much more rampant and where the West supports any steps by the government to curb piracy.

This is more akin to allowing a company to charge 10 cents/ for every litre of diesel or petrol sold at every petrol pump in Malaysia in return for doing nothing . Except in the labelling issue, it is even more punitive.

It punishes every Malaysian each time they fall sick particularly the elderly and the chronically- ill. It adds an extra cost layer to our increasingly costly healthcare system with no added benefit.

Unlike our 'beloved' tolled roads for which there are alternative routes, medicines have no substitute. Drugs are patented and cannot be copied easily, if at all. Even generic drugs (cheaper versions of original drugs whose patents have lapsed) will have to be labelled. No exceptions. Even syringes now have to be labelled.

Despite protests from the pharmaceutical industry, the US and EU, the Malaysians government has pushed through the hologram label proposal which scheduled to be implemented this month.

So much for developing a first class mentality to match our first class infrastructure, Pak Lah. We haven't progressed from the good old feudal days when the 'ketua kampung' would bestow special privileges upon his coterie of cronies.

Will this be the last straw that breaks the camel's back? Will the rakyat finally say 'enough is enough' and finally put their collective foot down?