The PN component parties have lost their purpose to look after the welfare of the rakyat and are more intent on scrambling to retain power following UMNO’s decision to pull out from the PN government and causing the loss of the Prime Minister Mahiaddin Md Yasin’s parliamentary majority. The politically “illegitimate” Prime Minister is spending his time and energy fighting to save his political life at the expense of the livelihood of the rakyat.
Has the PN government forgotten the remarks of the President of the Bumiputera Retailers’ Association and Mydin Mohamed Holdings managing director Ameer Ali Mydin that it is heartbreaking that shoplifting and theft during the COVI-19 pandemic does not involve high-value items such as television sets and speakers but have shifted to food products such as fish and vegetables. He added that sales of instant noodles had also skyrocketed “very, very high”.
This is a typical dysfunctional government failing to perform their basic duty of meeting the essential needs of the rakyat, especially the poor, unemployed and businesses facing closure. That is why DAP suggests the monthly welfare payments be increased to RM1,000, including the unemployed which will cost RM1 billion extra monthly.
What is the additional RM1 billion monthly compared to the cost of the current total lockdown estimated at RM170 billion by economists? DAP is not suggesting a higher sum of RM1,500 monthly because this increase to RM1,000 monthly welfare aid was a promise made by Mahiaddin during last year’s Sabah state general election promise. To-date this remains an empty promise.
Instead we see only the promises of appointing Deputy Ministers, Ministers or even the Deputy Prime Minister delivered, with no positive impact whatever to the country in terms of reducing the record COVID-19 cases and deaths, swift and smooth vaccination process as well as helping out desperate Malaysian workers and businesses in distress.
The government should not get stuck in old and orthodox financial thinking but adopt a more dynamic approach when the country is facing a once in a lifetime crisis. There must be serial financial aid on a regular basis to save jobs, businesses, and livelihood. The old method of one-off aid is a mere financial band aid that will not protect the economic livelihood of ordinary workers and financially distressed Malaysians.