Handouts helpful if done right

 

The people of Saudi Arabia and the UAE have been complaining about rising prices so in response their governments are allocating the equivalent of RM55 billion to provide them financial support.

Similar packages are also being rolled out in neighbouring Singapore and Indonesia.

In Singapore, each household earning less than S$34,000 (RM104,000) a year will receive S$300 (RM924) next month. In addition, all households will be given a utility credit worth S$100 (RM308).

Rather than help alleviate the hardship caused by the economic downturn brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic, this time it is to help those badly affected by rising inflation.

We, too, have a history of making “noise”. When a plate of char koay teow costs RM8 and a plate of nasi lemak goes for RM13, the volume becomes louder.

Our government, too, has responded with cash handouts and subsidies for the essential stuff that would otherwise be beyond the reach of many.

In its 2022 budget, the government earmarked RM31 billion as cash assistance and incentives to the needy.

At least RM8 billion will go to the recipients as cash handouts and the rest will be used to underwrite the cost of the many subsidies needed to keep increases in the prices of essential goods in check.

In Malaysia, such monetary aid has not gone down well with some, especially those who are not on the receiving end, but whose pockets the money is coming from.

These programmes are funded with taxpayers’ money and the assumption is that if you are not poor enough to get the aid, you are most likely rich enough to finance it.

That may be true to a certain extent, but there surely must be those caught in between – too rich to be entitled to the free cash yet don’t earn enough to pay taxes.

But that is not the point here.

Such cash aid is necessary in some cases, not just in Malaysia but in other parts of the world. The dole dished out in many countries in the West is much like the cash aid.

There is no other way to describe the monthly pay packet despite not having a job.

When jobs are not available and there are empty stomachs to fill, people can be pushed to extremes … criminal or otherwise, if help is not forthcoming.

It is easy for those who have the capacity to earn big bucks to say that all one needs to do is work a little harder to earn that extra moolah. If only it was that simple.

Some people’s earning capacity is limited. With little education or skills, they are down to doing just the most menial of tasks, earning the RM1,500 minimum wage.

Anyone who lives in urban centres such as the Klang Valley and George Town should know how difficult it is to survive on that sum of money.

It only gets worse when there are too many mouths to feed.

Then there are those who do not even have the option to get a job. Just think of the wife of an abusive, jobless and drug-dependent husband taking care of six children and living in a PPR flat.

A subsidy and cash handout initiative is not such a bad idea. It is now being done even in oil-rich Saudi Arabia and the UAE, as well as economically advanced Singapore, where we assume that everyone has money spilling out of their pockets.

It just has to be more targeted to ensure it reaches the right people, a problem that does not seem to have been solved yet.

Then there is the possibility of abuse or the use of it for political expediency. And it is not beyond our politicians to try just that. - FMT

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.