'RM35 food packs from NGO’, Rasah MP questions RM100 aid promised by gov’t

Rasah MP Cha Kee Chin said although Defence Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob has said the RM35 food packs were provided by NGOs, this only shows that his constituency has yet to receive the much-touted RM100 food packs from the government.

“(Ismail’s) denial shows that so far, the Rasah constituency still has not received any food packs from the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government, even though the third phase of the movement control order (MCO) is coming to an end,” Cha said in a statement today.

He also said that when his representative went to collect the 150 food packs from the Social Welfare Department (SWD), the officer involved did not mention anything about it being contributions from NGOs.

The denial was only done by the federal government after Cha raised the issue of the food packs’ total value.

“This clearly shows that the government is trying to get away with not obeying the guidelines by pointing fingers to NGOs,” Cha said.

He also stressed that even though there are already contributions from NGOs, the federal government should not abscond from its responsibility in providing aid and obeying the set guidelines.

The guidelines dated March 27, 2020 clearly states that the acquisition of the RM100 food packs would be handled by the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry whereas the parliamentarians’ offices would handle the house-to-house distribution, Cha said.

As such, he urged Ismail and the PN government to provide a clear explanation on where the RM100 food packs have gone and when the packs will be distributed to the B40 families in the Rasah constituency.

“It is essential that we immediately distribute the food packs to the B40 because this group has been heavily affected by the MCO, where many of them kais pagi makan pagi, kais petang makan petang (surviving hand to mouth) every day,” Cha said.

Previously, Cha had claimed that the 150 food packs his team received for distribution from the government were only worth RM35 each, despite being told they would be worth RM100.

Ismail later refuted these allegations and said the RM35 food packs were aid from NGOs sent to the SWD for distribution.

The PN government had promised to deliver 1,000 food packs for the B40 lower-income group to each parliamentary constituency, to help them see through the MCO period.

However, opposition MPs have accused the government of politicking the aid, by either stymying delivery in opposition areas, or putting PN grassroots leaders in charge of distribution. - Mkini