More flak for manual BR1M hand-out

Perak opposition members today condemned the state's move to manually hand-out the Bantuan Rakyat 1Malaysia (BR1M) funds.

Complaints in the silver state emerged days after a BR1M recipient in Perlis was taken away in a stretcher while in queue to collect the aid.

"The recipients opened their bank accounts to ease the process of obtaining the financial aid. Now they want them to attend special functions before they can take the BR1M voucher.

"This is fooling the rakyat," PKR's Kuala Sepetang assemblyperson Chua Yee Ling told Malaysiakini.

Chua claimed that her division's service centre had received more than 20 complaints over the matter, mostly from elderly recipients between the ages of 70 to 80.

Sitiawan assemblyperson's aide, Sky Ngo, said the DAP service centre there has received more than a hundred complaints from Mar 1 to 3.

"These people don't want to queue and to cash in the voucher at Bank Simpanan Nasional. It wastes their time," Ngo told Malaysiakini.

Waited for hours in the heat

Amanah communication officer Muhammad Faeez Azahar said the distribution of BR1M vouchers in Batu Gajah was "unorganised and not done systematically".

“The elderly and disabled had to wait for hours in the heat to accept the voucher.

"The whole event was no different from a night market because of the lack of professionalism by the organiser," Faeez said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Lumut MCA youth chief Ting Thai Fook said the manual distribution of BR1M vouchers was on request by the Perak state secretariat.

"This is inappropriate. Other states are giving out the aid through direct debit.

"I am dissatisfied with this. Many workers lose out on productivity taking leave to queue up," he said when contacted.

Perak exco in charge of health Dr Mah Hang Soon refused to comment on the matter and Perak Menteri Besar Zambry Abdul Kadir has yet to reply to Malaysiakini.- Mkini