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Monday, June 22, 2015

A nation of beggars – J. D. Lovrenciear

Image result for Barisan Nasional giving rice bags and goodies

After 5 decades of governing a nation, what has Umno brought for the people of Malaysia in collaboration with its race-based partners MCA and MIC?
The Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition diehards will immediately shoot back saying that people who criticise are ungrateful, and point at the year-after-year registration of Malaysia’s GNP and GDP.
They will point at the numerous skyscrapers, tolled highways and palatial dwellings.

Or they will immediately tell you how other Asian countries are struggling and point at the scores of illegals and refugees coming ashore to this "land of milk and honey".
Some will even go the distance to proclaim that we have to be ever grateful as even the holy land of Mecca is filled with Malay-Muslims from Malaysia these days.
But what is the ground reality? Are we Malaysians beggars?
Today we eagerly reach our hands for the BR1M cash programme, for a few hundred ringgit every 12 months.
We also will never hesitate to rise early to join a long, endless queue for a 5kg bag of rice, never mind if it is not of premium grade.
Why? It is because even a few hundred ringgit every 12 months makes a difference to our desperate finances, and in so many cases, going by the tides of people rushing to grab a bag of rice, even 5kg helps put extra food on the table.
Whether we buy a motorbike or a car, we scout for the lowest downpayment deal or the maximum repayment period which, by the way, now extends to a 9-year period.
Why? Simply put, people do not have the money to buy a motorbike or car, even though without it they are paralysed for transportation.
The same goes for purchase of a roof over one's head. Your loan stretches right past your retirement age. And in some cases it is re-mortgaged for education or medical expenses.
Some may argue that it is okay because the rental will pay off the loans and thirty years later we will be the landed class. Nice argument. But the truth is your heart friend.
Let's talk about financing education. How many of us can send our kids to institutions of our choice or even overseas with our own pockets?
Every year the number of people running here and there begging for scholarships is a tale shared by almost every family.
How many, out of desperation, do not mind their kids getting into any public institution even if that college or university rates very lowly?
The other hushed-up story is that of loan sharks in the country. The loan shark in Malaysia is a booming business. Of course, the authorities will not dare to venture and report the whole truth about this shady and lucrative business in the country.
And the fact that borrowers do not go around town advertising their borrowings, it makes it even more conducive to hide this ugly truth.
Look at the posters at every available street space or the business cards and leaflets left on car windscreens and motorbike handles/seats, advertising that even “bankrupts also can borrow”.
Have you seen how many bill collectors converge at every building even in Putrajaya, the nation's administrative capital, just around payday?
Why do policemen on the beat look for migrant workers? Let's not lie in this holy month. Aren't they also desperate for some easy cash?
Why are people screaming "Bantah GST" even though the Najib government keeps preaching that the sweetness will come later?
Citizens cannot even afford the 6% squeeze, that’s why. It is not because Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad or former trade minister Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz said so.
Why are Malaysians using credit cards? Is it because they are proud to announce that they have arrived at a grander financial station in life?
Look, they are already struggling to make monthly repayments with compounding interets rates, please do not forget. Why not ask the financial institutions to report the truth? Of course they will not.
So after 57 years of independence and having had the world’s longest political party in government, why are Malaysians begging for 5kg of rice, a bag of dates in Ramadan, a few hundred ringgit every 12 months, hunting for the longest loan period and lowest downpayment, desperately running here and there for scholarships, relying on credit cards for dry days, hiding from loan sharks, and a whole lot more not mentioned here for want of space?
Something is very wrong. No? For a country that is rich in crops and oil, and a small population in comparison to neighbouring nations without much resources, why are we like this?
Is it a case of good governance but a nation of bad and hopeless people? 
* J. D. Lovrenciear reads The Malaysian Insider.

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