Wage increases and handouts alone are not going to fix the B40 group’s problems. They never have and never will. And no one likes to remain at the bottom of the economic pile forever.
But our history tells us a different story. Before Merdeka, we had a B90 economy running at full steam.
The B90, toiling in rubber estates, tin mines, paddy fields and farms, endured a harsh life. Schooling and healthcare were not free, and price controls and public housing were unheard of.
Parents toiled from dawn to dusk, making all manner of sacrifices to give their children a better chance at life.
It was a life steeped in saying “no” to almost everything except for the bare essentials. Deferred gratification and frugality were the order of the day.
Parents saved and planned for the things they wanted - a new radio, bicycle, stove or curtains. The sheer pain of self-reliance!
Yet, out of this predominantly B90 society, the country pulled itself up by the bootstraps, becoming an economy that was the envy of her neighbours.
Peace and geopolitics also worked in our favour. And if not for our crooked, race-baiting politicians, the B40 segment will now be a very manageable B10.
That opportunity may have passed us for good now, squandered in wasteful and wanton government expenditure.
The B40 is seemingly stuck and unable to become M40 and yet we remain a relatively open economy.
The question everyone should ask: If the B90 did it before, why can’t the B40 now?
The wisdom of Mr Kumar
Social mobility and poverty eradication in an open economy require three things - a class of risk-takers and wealth creators, an incorruptible civil service and lastly, a hardworking B segment of society that uses every scrap of aid and opportunity, including employment, to stand on their own two feet.
How exactly must the poor use aid and employment to stand on their own two feet? Enter Mr Kumar of Ulu Yam Estate, Rawang.
This humble clerk who ran our rubber factory is my perennial pick for the Nobel Prize in economics. Move aside Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo!
In 1982, he taught me a lesson in “Poor Economics”, explaining how one can prosper in life.
“Live one level below your current station in life”, said Mr Kumar cheerfully as he expertly pushed some Bombay snuff up his nostril to elicit a mighty sneeze. He was a teetotaler and mostly vegetarian.
Home for him and his small family was the estate staff quarters with free water and restricted hours of electricity from generators.
He walked to work and in his spare time, watched television, read the papers and books. He prayed every day as evidenced by the prayer ash on his forehead.
He went on to explain that the poor tapper at the bottom of the pile must live like a beggar, forgoing tobacco and alcohol and growing his own vegetables and chickens to make ends meet.
Harsh? “Better to live like a poor beggar than beg from others,” said Mr Kumar.
A mandore or kepala, earning slightly more than the tappers he supervised, must live like a tapper but never a mandore by adhering to the golden rule of living one level below one’s station in life.
“Not difficult at all! Just one step below!” said Mr Kumar.
The clerk must live like a mandore; the chief clerk like a clerk; the estate executive like a chief clerk and the estate manager like an executive.
“It is not difficult to live within your means and still be happy if this rule is followed," said Mr Kumar with a twinkle in his eyes.
Spending with wild abandon
To think that from 1982 onwards, we had successive prime ministers, ministers and party bigwigs all encouraging the B40 to live beyond their means by promising them the riches of this land as their inheritance.
Taking matters further, the B40 began living one step above their station in life!
They bought cars they could ill afford to own since both public transportation and affordable housing were not prioritised by the government.
They also spent their rising incomes on travelling and shopping like it was their birthright, treating the credit card as a perpetual money fountain.
This “enjoy life spending” is still in full swing, fueled by corruption and malfeasance on a grand scale. Think 1MDB and blatant corruption in sections of the civil service, enforcement agencies, and the private sector.
Our “unofficial” economy probably accounts for 20 percent of our gross domestic product and is growing.
Mr Kumar has passed on and those who took his advice to heart worked hard at their jobs and businesses, even taking on a second job.
Living “one step below their station in life”, they slowly transitioned from B90 to M40 and T20 and of these, millions have migrated, causing a brain drain.
The B40 has now turned the tables on our politicians for their past excesses, demanding handouts for their votes.
Surely this is the first case of rabbits mesmerising a venomous snake. No wonder the last barriers to forced savings and frugality, the bastion called the Employees Provident Fund, are coming down fast.
The longer we don’t get the B40 story right, the deeper the debt hole and the more Mr Kumar looks like a genius to me! - Mkini
MURALE PILLAI is a former GLC employee. He runs a logistics company.
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.
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