Do their lives matter?

 

I am referring to those who earn very little income, and those who are jobless in this difficult period. I will include under this category those undocumented migrants who, legality aside, contributed immensely to our workforce in all the key sectors of the economy where locals are not available to do the job. Do their lives matter?

This pandemic has created havoc on many people’s lives, especially the poor. When you have lost your jobs, feeding your family becomes hard. When your children’s education is stunted and the spectre of death awaits at every corner, reality grips you in ways you have not experienced before.

In good times we have the luxury of indulging in trivial matters; fighting over unimportant issues that don’t change anything in real life. You can fantasise and be delusional about how great the country is, without worrying too much about the consequences. Covid-19 has changed all that; because reality has set in.

When someone tweeted that a Tengku should not be made finance minister, it goes to show the frustration of the people; not just towards our finance minister, but to our leaders as a whole. It reflects a complete disdain of the rakyat to leaders who show a lack of empathy and understanding of the problems of ordinary people, as if their lives do not matter.

Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz talks of a cashless society in 2022. What good is this when poor people do not have money to begin with? He should just announce a complete and automatic moratorium for loans so these people can survive for another year.

Bank Negara is a citadel of power that can do more to help people in distress. They just need to trust the people more and have more compassion. Just the other day, a friend who has lived here legally for 20 years and paid taxes regularly, had to ask his 91-year-old father, who lives in Australia, to transfer Aus$10,000 so he could pay fees for his children.

Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz

How many questions did this person have to answer? Why are you receiving this money? From who? For what purpose? Can you bring your passport and business registration to the bank? After much interrogation, he received clearance only after a week. Can we be more practical about this money laundering control? Can we do more to help people in distress? Only high-ranking politicians, business cartels, and underworld bosses need to launder money. For many of us, there is no money to launder. Do not apply rules blindly.

The country needs totally new political and economic ideas and approaches to lift the country, post-Covid-19. We need a “New Deal” in the way Roosevelt took America out of The Great Depression. For a start, the finance minister, economy minister and Bank Negara should approve a huge stimulus package not seen before. With a fair and transparent system of distribution and handouts, it will achieve the desired purpose, which is to kick start the economy and provide immediate relief to those affected by this pandemic. They need more investments in infrastructure, and not be afraid to deal with those who talk incessantly about our national debt.

The country needs a Bank Negara that is supportive of new ideas and not insulated from the lives of ordinary people. We need a Bank Negara that is pro-rakyat and not pro banks. We need banks to lend to small people and small businesses with as little restriction as possible. Bank Bumiputera collapsed in the 1970s, but not because of lending freely to the poor traders. Bank Bumiputera collapsed because of frauds committed by tycoons in cohort with politicians. Small traders and farmers pay their loans.

Encourage the banks to lend more. Bank Negara must not micromanage the banking industry. All that Bank Negara has succeeded in doing so far is creating a cluster of big banks, which reap a few billion ringgit in profits each year, which allows for big payouts to their CEOs. We are not America, where they have unemployment benefits, and a minimum wage that is modestly adequate. They have a social safety net far more holistic than we can dream of. They can afford to play by Wall Street rules. We are a country where millions live by a minimum wage fit for serfs, and many do not have a living wage to enjoy a decent life. Remember that!

The country needs revitalised finance and economy ministers and a more people-centric Bank Negara. Business as usual and adopting old traditional ways no longer can work or adequately help people in distress. Helping big business with all sorts of incentives, or funnier still, waiting in line to attract quality foreign investments, do not help the lives of many people. The so-called trickle-down effect of the wealth of the rich going down to the masses is hogwash.

Our ministers need not fear the statutory debt limit. This is a self-imposed limitation. Let us borrow more money (if necessary) to help the people and grow the economy. After all, the national debt ratio to GDP of Britain is 86 percent, Singapore is at 130 percent and Japan is at over 200 percent, and they are all rich, developed economies. It is what you do with the borrowed money (or printed money) that matters.

The other meaningful lesson from this Covid-19 experience is that the country needs good and capable leaders. Mediocrity, like the virus, will kill us, only slowly. Our leaders must be capable of solving problems and avert future national crises. The world is a good place to observe these phenomena, that good leaders save lives. Some countries are better than others in managing Covid-19. They just have more capable leaders. This attribute is urgently needed.

Political parties need to depart from the established and conventional way of selecting candidates. They need to be more thorough and scrutinise the candidate list with professional help and select candidates who have certain skill sets (other than oratory skills), which can be used to help the people. The days of getting someone as a candidate because of allegiance alone will not do.

Finally, are we united to fight against those who want no Parliament, more roadblocks and a convoluted vaccine supply and immunisation system to continue? The country faces an uncertain future. No country in the world has the experience of living under an emergency, where Parliament is suspended and being ruled by a few when dealing with Covid-19 and its aftermath. No country in the world (except Myanmar) has adopted our approach in dealing with this problem. So, how do we know that this special approach will work? The signs are not good. So please be vigilant, and be critical. Always ask for explanations in the way our leaders do things. They might be taking us someplace we have not been before. - Mkini

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ZAID IBRAHIM is a former law minister.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.