RM500, RM250 million – what madness is this?!

Shahrizat's family has dug up a goldmine in the cattle business while the average Joe has to wait for a miserable and insulting RM500.

COMMENT

Can anyone understand why Shahrizat Abdul Jalil’s family gets RM250 million for a project while those households with the income of less than RM3k get only RM500?

Perhaps it is better for us, the average Joe to go into the cattle business too so that we can also get RM250 million and with that amount of money we can bring our family members, relatives and friends on that Caribbean cruise we have always dreamed about.

It is the epitome of cronyism the way the project was awarded to Shahrizat. No two ways about it as after all she obtained the contract from her Umno colleague Muhyiddin Yassin who was the Minister of Agriculture at that material time.

For the average Joe who only gets the one-off RM500, this is an insulting joke! Perhaps RM500 can last for a month in the remote rural areas but in the city, an extremely stingy person can survive on that amount for one month only if he is single and does not need to pay the rent, the utilities bills and is not servicing any loan repayment.

In short, he is living-off his parents’ wealth or depending on others. Otherwise, the situation of a KL person who earns RM500 is termed as ‘die-standing’.

This is clear evidence that the wealth of the nation’s elite (read: the cronies) is beyond comparison. They have posh cars, properties galore and a jet-setting lifestyle while we have to slog day-in day-out for a better future.

The elite can afford to go for breakfast in Paris, lunch in London and dinner in Vienna all on the same day while the poor and the low-wage earner struggle daily to put food on the table and this situation of extreme income and wealth disparity is perpetuated by the BN system of governance.

Thus, the ‘People First’ slogan is a blatant lie to con the poor and the marginalised.

The BN federal government does not care two hoots about the oppressed. In addition to that, the government have failed to read the pulse of the nation which can be summed up in one word for the year 2011 and that word is none other than ‘lembu’ or cattle in English.

‘Lembu’ stands for three things:-

• Cronyism;

• The fact that the rakyat have been taken for a scandalous fast-moooooving ride; and

• As the cow is revered by the Hindus, it also serves to remind us that even after 54 years of Merdeka, the Indians continue to be marginalised.

BN just bungling along

It is the Chinese tradition to sum up the year in just one word and ‘lembu’ is on par with Bersih as the keyword of last year.

In 2008, PKFZ was DAP’s keyword in the general election campaign and this time PKR will surely use the ‘lembu’ keyword in their polls campaign.

Shahrizat should not blame the Pakatan Rakyat for targeting her on this issue as the same was originally brought up in the Auditor-General’s Report which described the project as ‘messy’.

Shahrizat’s family has dug up a goldmine in the cattle business while the average-man-in-the-street has to wait for a miserable RM500.

Some of the applicants for this one-off aid were told that they will be getting this money on Jan 15, while others were told that they would get it between mid-January to mid-March. This shows that the logistics have not even been thought out by the BN federal government and they are just bungling along.

Still, the RM500 for more than the five million people earning less than RM3k will come in useful due to the ever-rising cost of living.

Anyway, the applicants need not jump for joy yet because although funds have been allocated for this piecemeal aid project, the money may still go to some unscrupulous peoples’ pockets instead of being distributed to the rakyat.

As for the poor wage-earner, he may not get the RM500 but he thinks his friend got it and vice-versa and no one is the wiser as everyone is kept dumb and ignorant. This is Malaysia Boleh where the BN government is concerned unless the rakyat were to wake up and say: ‘this madness must be stopped right now’.

But Malaysians, sad to say, are a gullible lot and they have always believed wholeheartedly in the government’s words as the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. This is what made BN entrenched as the federal government and things look set to continue unless the insipid rakyat are suddenly inspired to wake up to the present-day realities.

However, this is highly unlikely due to the citizens’ mind being constantly bombarded and brainwashed by BN propaganda.

Even the Americans have woken up to the fact that income and wealth disparity is for real when a disproportionate amount of the nation’s wealth is in the hands of an elite few and thus the movement of ‘Occupy Wall Street’ was born with the average citizens holding up placards telling the world that ‘we are the 99%’.

But due to our rakyat always being in a stupor, it is not surprising that BN will the 13th general election. Therefore, the twin-ills of corruption and cronyism will continue to the end of eternity.

Selena Tay is a FMT columnist.